Shop 'Til They Drop
Is it bad that Condi Rice is shoe-shopping while the situation in New Orleans deteriorates? Some people are outraged, but I don't know enough about the Secretary of State's duties to know whether there's anything she can do about domestic problems. It kind of looks bad, though, I have to admit. Imagine what would have happened if Hillary Clinton, as mere First Lady, had done something similar...
Is it bad that Condi Rice is shoe-shopping while the situation in New Orleans deteriorates? Some people are outraged, but I don't know enough about the Secretary of State's duties to know whether there's anything she can do about domestic problems. It kind of looks bad, though, I have to admit. Imagine what would have happened if Hillary Clinton, as mere First Lady, had done something similar...
posted by Winston Smith at
9:59 AM
5 Comments:
Why, exactly, does this look bad? Is everyone in the Cabinet supposed to act busy even if they have nothing at all to do with this situation?
If we want to paint with the broadest possible brush, we could argue that three Cabinet Secretaries should be involved in this situation: Housing and Urban Development, Homeland Security (big time, since FEMA is here), and Health & Human Services.
That leaves the Secretaries of Commerce, Interior, Energy, Agriculture, Labor, Defense, Justice, Education, Transportation, Treasury, and Veterans Affairs who presumably should be working on their regular jobs right now, and also hopefully going about their lives as usual. I would argue that the Secretary of State should also fall into the "Business as Usual" category under the circumstances.
In fact, I would argue that it would look bad for her to get involved in Louisiana right now, since it is manifestly not her job. It would harken back to the days of Bush Sr., when it appeared that George Schultz (then SoS) had his fingers in every branch of the government. Let Condi worry about international stuff. That's her job. And let her do her shopping like everybody else.
Yep, A, I think you're probably right.
I don't know what in Condi Rice's track record would make you put her among the "most competent" officials in the administration. Then again, considering the competition...
Almost nothing is relative...but many things are comparative...
Perhaps Winston and the commenters here believe that the Secretary of State has no role to play in disaster relief, but the Bush administration thinks otherwise:
"Americans watching television coverage of the disaster this weekend began to see ... prominent members of the administration ... [including] Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state - touring storm-damaged communities."
(NYT, 5 Sept. 05, http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspecial/05bush.html?pagewanted=print)
Of course, Mr. Bush's concern is focused on relieving the consequences to his political fortunes of his administration's disastrous failure in the wake of Katrina.
Still, for purposes of this discussion, since the Sec. of State was sent to Mobile on a purely symbolic visit, then it is proper to criticize her actions because of the symbolism of her shopping for multi-thousand-dollar shoes when the administration was failing to save the lives of our fellow Americans.
If the Bush administration did not choose to use all of its resources (including cabinet officials) as propaganda & PR tools, then there would have been some substance to Winston's concern.
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