Karl Rove in Charge of N'awlins?

It's going to take me time (which I don't have; work is kicking my behind something fierce) to truly parse everything that Our Leader said last night in his not-too-bad speech about New Orleans and why despite it being rhetorically just what the nation wanted to hear, there is a lot of reason to be afraid for both New Orleans and the country contained in it (elevation of the military's powers in times of national emergency? Entrepreneurship as the solution for poverty grown from racial discrimination? Yikes.....)

But here's something from today's New York Times that we didn't hear: the identity of the person who is to shepherd the recovery effort.

Karl Rove.

At least, it's Rove according to today's Times:

Republicans said Karl Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff and Mr. Bush's chief political adviser, was in charge of the reconstruction effort, which reaches across many agencies of government and includes the direct involvement of Alphonso R. Jackson, secretary of housing and urban development

Now, last time I checked, Karl Rove had spent his entire life as a political hack. He's never been in charge of housing development. He's never been in charge of environmental projects. He's never been in charge even of the one things right-wing Republithugs do best: investment projects.

Yet somehow he's qualified to manage a $60+ (at least) billion dollar reconstruction and relocation project affecting a million people? More qualified than the people who have actually done some of the stuff required to be done?

If there is any "proof" that last night's speech is all a bunch of political hooey intended to sooth Bush's "base", and that it is business as usual at the White House where cronyism and incompetence are concern, Karl Rove's elevation into Katrina Czar is it.