If the president’s speech didn’t convince you that his plan for rebuilding New Orleans is really a plan to rebuild his sagging approval numbers and the hopes for a continued GOP Congressional majority in 2006, maybe this will:

(NY 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.

Karl Rove. The Turd Blossom who committed treason by leaking a CIA agent’s identity, in charge of the largest federal reconstruction effort in history. Because, you know, Karl has “Brownie”-level experience in dealing with such an undertaking.

You mean to tell me that in a nation of 300 million, Karl Rove has the most successful record and experience in managing environmental and urban disaster recovery? Not, perhaps, someone like Peter Ueberroth, or Rudy Guiliani, or any number of former FEMA directors, civil engineers, former military leaders, former governors, or anyone else who’s had the remotest connection to a tornado, earthquake, mudslide, blackout, or wildfire recovery effort?

Naw, because what Karl Rove is really really good at is spin and creating images and scaring voters and political dirty tricks and winning elections. Arianna Huffington put it this way:

So here is the White House’s Katrina Plan in a nutshell: block any independent examination of its failings, put the Einstein of damage control in charge of reconstructing New Orleans, keep the dead bodies out of sight, try to get away with general platitudes and palliatives, offer watered-down acceptances of “responsibility” while trying to pin everything you can on local yokels and fall guys like Brownie, and let Bush’s corporate cronies get fat on hefty no-bid reconstruction contracts. [And let’s not forget about paying the workers less than the prevailing wage and not having to fulfill any affirmative-action requirements.]

So get ready for the New New Orleans — Karl Rove’s Big Easy — featuring the Halliburton French Quarter, the ExxonMobil River (formerly the Mississippi), Lake MBNA (formerly Pontchartrain), and Eli Lilly music (formerly jazz).

With deals like that shimmering on the horizon, it’s no wonder the president’s pals in Congress are doing everything they can to throw a monkey wrench into House Democrats’ efforts to investigate the Plamegate scandal, and the Boy Genius’ involvement in it — shooting down a pair of bills that would have required Antonio Gonzalez and the Justice Department, and Condi Rice and the State Department to turn over all documents and information pertaining to the outing of Valerie Plame.

God forbid! Mustn’t allow anything to get in the way of Reconstruction Karl’s efforts to rebuild the president’s poll numbers, eh?

I don’t know what pisses me off more; that they don’t even try to hide their shameless political opportunism, or that more of my fellow Americans aren’t as pissed off about it as I am.

(Hat tip to Ms. Julien’s List)