Connect the Dots: Karl Rove's Politics Uber Alles Strategy and the Utah Mine Disaster
What makes Karl Rove's politics uber alles strategy chilling is connecting the dots between it and the Utah mining disaster.
Rove's unprecedented use of federal assets for political gain, laid out in yesterday's Washington Post, meant that every tool at his disposal was employed to help foster his goal of a permanent Republican majority. "It was all politics, all the time," Rep. Henry Waxman told WaPo.
"It was total commitment," marveled Rep. Thomas Davis III, who worked closely with Rove in 2002 on the GOP's House reelection campaign. "We knew history was against us, and [Rove] helped coordinate all of the accoutrements of the executive branch to help with the campaign."
These accouterments included, in the words of the Post, "enlisting political appointees at every level of government in a permanent campaign that was an integral part of [Rove's] strategy to establish electoral dominance." But Rove's plan involved much more than having Cabinet officials make election year visits bearing federal goodies to the districts of embattled Republicans; it also meant using the government's regulatory mechanisms to reward major GOP contributors. Major contributors such as Big Coal.
Coal mining interests have donated more than $12 million to federal candidates since the Bush-era began with the 2000 election cycle, with 88% of that money -- $10.6 million -- going to Republicans.
And what did that largess buy the coal mining industry? Mine safety regulators far more interested in looking out for the financial well-being of mine owners than for the physical well-being of miners.
Exhibit A is Bush's "mine safety" czar, Richard Stickler, whose agency both approved the controversial mining technique used at the Crandall Canyon Mine before the collapse, and oversaw the rescue operation.
Stickler is a former coal company manager with such a lousy safety record at the companies he'd run that his nomination as head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration was twice rejected by Senators from both parties, forcing Bush to sneak him in the back door with a recess appointment.
In other words, the guy the White House tapped to protect miners is precisely the kind of executive the head of the Mine Safety and Health Administration is supposed to protect miners from. And now Stickler is the one who will lead the "investigation" into what happened in Utah -- unless there is enough public outcry to force a truly independent investigation.
Of course, industry-friendly regulators like Stickler have been the rule under Bush, not the exception. Indeed, Bush's first mine safety czar was Dave Lauriski, a former mining executive who had earned a reputation for aggressively defending the interests of mine owners. For chapter and verse on Lauriski, read this terrific article by Ken Ward, Jr. in the Washington Monthly, but here is the nub of the matter: Lauriski took office promising mine owners that he would "collaborate more with stakeholders on regulatory initiatives" and become "less confrontational" with mine operators.
Exactly what did he mean by "less confrontational"? According to Ward, during his tenure, Lauriski "filled [MSHA's] top jobs with former industry colleagues, dropped more than a dozen safety proposals initiated during the Clinton administration, and cut almost 200 of the agency's 1,200 coal mine inspectors. Mine-safety experts have linked many of these actions to the causes of deadly mine safety accidents since 2001." Among the mine-safety regulations Lauriski dropped was one that would have deepened investigations of mining accidents.
No doubt Murray and the owners of the coal mines where over 170 miners have died since Lauriski gutted those safety regulations are happy that he did.
Lauriski resigned after 60 Minutes revealed that the MSHA had improperly awarded no-bid contracts to coal industry companies to which he was tied.
It's worth noting that the person Bill Clinton appointed to head MSHA, J. Davitt McAteer, was not a coal-industry insider -- indeed, he had been a key force behind the 1969 Coal Mine Health and Safety Act, had worked with Ralph Nader on workplace safety reforms, and was running a public-interest law firm focused on occupational safety when Clinton tapped him. He therefore came to the job with a very different perspective than the one required by Rove's objective of using government agencies as accoutrements for the GOP's permanent campaign.
Putting foxes in charge of the henhouse has been standard operating procedure for Rove's hyper-politicized White House. The long list of industry hacks given key slots at federal agencies will forever stand as the ultimate tribute to Rove's effectiveness in turning the federal government into an arm of the Republican Party -- and a payback machine for those that funded it. For a primer on the hackocracy, check out the New Republic, TomPaine.com, and the Denver Post.
In far too many cases, these cynical appointments that put the Party's interest above the public interest, have left our country less safe, our environment more polluted, our fellow citizens less healthy -- and, in the case of the Crandall Canyon Mine, three of them dead, and six others in all likelihood entombed in the mine forever.
Karl Rove may be on his way out the door, but the destructive legacy of his politicization of the federal government will be with us for many years to come.
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The first thing the next Democrat president must do is fire every Bush appointee. They are all extremely unqualified or incredibly corrupt to hold any public office.
Let us all join hands and sing "The Turd Blossom Special" as we wish "Karl "The Turdy" Rove good luck and GOD's speed on his journey to Texas! GTT*
* a historical reference,GTT (Gone To Texas)used when criminals went to Texas to escape the law, or to describe politicians who go quail or dove hunting and want to spend more time with their families!
It is funny when you think about it:
REPUBLICANS HATE GOVERNMENT REGULATION BECAUSE IT FORCES THEM TO PLAY BY THE RULES THAT THE REST OF US HAVE-
SO WHAT ON EARTH (OR HEAVEN) WOULD MAKE ANYONE THINK THAT REPUBLICANS CAN 'GOVERN' WITHOUT USING THEIR BENT TO 'PLAY OUTSIDE THE RULES'!!!!
Finally, our nation and THE WHOLE WORLD can see clearly that REPUBLICANS CANNOT GOVERN FAIRLY, EQUITABLY OR COMPASSIONATELY BECAUSE
THEIR PHILOSOPHY OF 'TAKING ADVANTAGE OF OTHERS WHENEVER YOU CAN' leaves the rest of us and our nation in DISREPAIR, DESTRUCTION and DISGRACED!
Well said! And those of us who like to think about the God we somehow still believe in might want to remember to thank Her for giving us the disasters of Katrina and the Hackocracy over Baghdad. Like the Depression of the 30's, they are what it takes to move the masses to overrule the power of the money of the rich and elect a kind of government, legislative and executive, that can effect reform. Of course we'll also probably have to hope for another packing of the SCOTUS, now thoroughly populated with BushWHacks.
Indeed, thought it hurt my head to read it.
The Republicans, IMHO, have permanently disqualified themselves from the Executive Branch.
Think about it - all Republican Administrations in recent memory have severly abused the national security apparatus -- from Watergate to the COINTELPRO and the CIA scandals to Iran-Contra to Iraq and warrantless wiretapping -- and there is no reason to suspect that they would ever do anything different.
Someone else will point out whatever abuses the Dems may have been guilty of - but I suggest that the for the GOP, such abuses are inevitable, being part and parcel of their philosophy and character.
Of course Chaney claims that he is not part of the executive branch. Does that mean that his claims of executive priveledge are void?
Arianna...
I'm a republican and a big fan of your posts and this blog. But, please. The constant ranting about Rove only serves to to validate the hysteria the democrats had [have] about his eventual success in politics. And, now you are connecting dots that are a stretch by anyones yardstick. The overall angst in Washington wasn't created by any one party. The posts referencing corporate dominance and an olgarchy are right on point. President Eisenhower warned about it in his outgoing speech. He called it the military-industrial complex and warned of it's insideous nature as far back as 1960.
Don't kid yourself about when corporate dominance began in OUR country. Names like Getty, Rockefeller, DuPont, Dow and Hearst have received lawmaker favoritism since long before 1960. Bribery goes way back, still you're correct that having it 'institutionalized' and sanctioned as a part of our election process IS more recent, and has created the one-party K-Street system we have today.
Allowing ANY lobbies opens Pandora's Box.
The deeper points have already been made by others in posts above so I won't repeat them but can only add, if none of this is crminal, why isn't it? Our country spent weeks titillated by what sanctions, laws, what have you should be used to outlaw further "wardrobe malfunctions" on TV, many congressman included, but when the health and well being of Americans is threatened, both parties are appallingly timid. There has at least been some media outcry about the miners, but I've yet to hear the outrage that should be coming from Congress. The November elections notwithstanding, maybe the Republicans are the ones who truly won if they succeeded in guaranteeing that the U.S. Government no longer gives a damn about the well-being if its citizens and whose only real purpose is to further enrich the rich.
Our Federal regulation agencies are like the firewall on our computers. They are set up to protect us from those things that can harm us. On computers the firewall stops incoming viruses, detects intrusion devices such as malware and spyware, and helps to keep our computers running safe and clean. The regulatory agencies should be doing something similar for society. The SEC should be watching to make sure corporations run their businesses appropriately. The FDA should make sure that food shipped in to the US isn't contaminated. The EPA should be taking actions to protect our environment. OSHA should be making sure that our practices at the workplace are safe and clean. FEMA should stand ready to quickly assist people in case of emergencies. However, under Bush and Rove these agencies were all stacked full of industry hacks and cronies who opposed and even stopped regulating. The foxes were guarding the hen houses. Thus we have had failure all across this government. Repukes like to point out that government doesn't work and is the problem (ala Romney and his golden sons.) But the truth is, Republicans don't work running government. What we need is an age of competence led by the opposition because these agencies are vital to the health and life of our nation.
Oh, This man BUSH has so much blood directly on his hands.
That information was known right from the beginning of Bush's presidency. The head of Mining was a former lobbyist. It wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure it out. Most everything has gone backward. In fact, it would be difficult to find ANYTHING in the US that hasn't gone backwards since Bush took over. America is totally in a mess & I'm taking an uneducated guess that there is no help for America right now. Our politicians are not doing their job. The MSM are not doing their job. The American people either don't know or they don't care and the ones that do are totally outnumbered.
America is in honest to God need of an HONEST LEADER. Someone to fix what has been breaking for the last century. Bush only speeded the process by 3 to 4 fold.
We need to ask our politicians why they don't like America.
Honest to god?
It is the belief in the fundie religion whose leaders have enabled much of this by joining in conspiracy with the Republicans and conning their believers to vote against their own interests in order to get government support for their fundie agendas whether homophobic or denying women the right to choose.
Why is this one of the only places you can go to find clarity? Writers like H.G. Wells and George Orwell tried to warn us about the advent of monsters like Rove.
No fiction writer is believed because he writes of how things will turn out in the future. And there is no predicting the future, right? Without looking at the past and the mistakes and the corruption, we are doomed to keep repeating the loop.
"Politicization of the federal government"?
Of course Rove's objectives were political. If FDR were president today, his objectives would be just as political, and he'd fill government with his kind of people--honest, law-abiding progressives--just as Bush fills it with lawless, cartelist plutocrats.
For a century America has had two competing economics, with corresponding conflicting visions as to whom and how much to tax and on what to spend the budget.
On one side, the tyranny of "pure capitalism" and "free market" plutocracy: supply side and "win-win": government as a tool to transfer wealth from the working class to the rich.
On the other, Keynesian economics and protective regulation
Here's what FDR had to say about America in 1936:
"Powerful influences strive today to restore that kind of [plutocratic] government with its doctrine that that Government is best which is most indifferent to mankind...
"We['ve] had to struggle with the old enemies of peace--business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering.
"They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage of their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as government by organized mob.
"Never before in all our history have these forces been so united ... as they stand today.
Sound familiar? That's because the supply-side revolution reversed the polarity of American politics and is busily undoing FDRs nation-saving work.
Bush is merely staying the plutocratic course.
But where is our FDR?
Politics is theatre. If it were serious there would be different actors. Americans love drama, scandal, sex, crime, and anything but legitimate, relevant information to make objective judgements on. Give us Brittany, O.J. Lindsay, Phil Spector, but please do not make us think seriously about important things unless it's about our own money. We deserve Bush and we've got him. cashguy1111 See my eBay blog
cash,
Sorry.
I DON'T deserve him. And if ONE person doesn't deserve him, WE don't deserve him.
Whip youself, not me.
Thank you.
The Bush crowd indeed approached mine safety with the mentality that the approached all other safety, health,env
I just want to say THANKS Arianna. For giving us this forum. So many smart people out there. It makes me wonder- How are so many great voices unheard in the MSM. Seems like the internet has become the global village. Keep up the good work-we need ya girl.
I ditto (to steal Rush Limbaugh's term) that.
Amazing how much havoc can be wrought in 7 years. No clue how King George accomplished all of this in so short of time. Bridge collapses. Mining disasters. Global warming. Millions dead in the Middle East. Wiretaps on my calls to the corner grocer. Tom Donaghy.
Who knew the man could wield such power so quickly. Its like these bridges and mines were only dug in 2001, or rather all the laws changed as soon as he hit office. I'm sure infrastructure was fully funded under Clinton because the world was perfect then.
It may not have been perfect, but it was a whole lot better under Clinton. At least FEMA worked during his administration.
Much of the damages done were caused by Presidential Executive Orders - edicts issued by the President and did not require laws to be enacted.
Our representatives describing Rove's and Bush's governing tactics:
"It was all politics all the time."
"It was total commitment
No. When you put the rights and wealth of private syndicates and cartels ahead of the physical security and human progress of the nation's citizens while fomenting rampant international violence and militarism - with no (other) rational vision or plan in sight - it is called corporate fascism. When you de-regulate and corrupt historically hazardous industries to empower yourself politically and so that their owners, already multi-millionaires, can make more money by putting American citizens in unnecessary danger it is called murder for power and profit. When you fire government employees who don't follow your transient politicized agenda and order others to break the laws and their oaths to the people it is a high crime. It's about time that at least some of our representatives begin to speak more plainly about what millions of us definitely see and feel. Ms. Pelosi might now seriously consider stepping back from her demand that their be no impeachment if for no other reason than to have the list of these crimes on the front page of every newspaper in the world and the corruption that is the Republican Party terminally exposed.
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