The Rovian Slime Machine is up and running

With Bush in trouble over the response to Katrina the New York Times reports that the Rovian Slime and Lie machine has been fired up. The success of Rove's efforts to pass the blame for the administration incredible failure off to others depends on us in the progressive and independent blogosphere to keep the media and individual journalists honest. Unlike the past people are ready to believe that administration totally fucked this up. Even Fox News had trouble spinning it. The MSM can't label it "old news" like the Downing Street Memo's. It is essential that the media realize they can't get away with publishing Rove's lies. The progressives have the moderates on their side this time. Joe Gandelman said it nicely:

So it's the Democrats who are to blame — but discussing the failings of the Republican-administered federal government brings a response that there will be "time to go back and do an after-action report" later.

In other words, blame it all on Democrats right now. You're somehow politicizing it, though, if you raise questions about the federal government's response and demand answers.

And then there's this:

In interviews, these Republicans said that the normally nimble White House political operation had fallen short in part because the president and his aides were scattered outside Washington on vacation, leaving no one obviously in charge at a time of great disruption. Mr. Rove and Mr. Bush were in Texas, while Vice President Dick Cheney was at his Wyoming ranch.

Mr. Bush's communications director, Nicolle Devenish, was married this weekend in Greece, and a number of Mr. Bush's political advisers - including Ken Mehlman, the Republican National Committee chairman - attended the wedding.

Ms. Rice did not return to Washington until Thursday, after she was spotted at a Broadway show and shopping for shoes, an image that Republicans said buttressed the notion of a White House unconcerned with tragedy.

These officials said that Mr. Bush and his political aides rapidly changed course in what they acknowledged was a belated realization of the situation's political ramifications. As is common when this White House confronts a serious problem, management was quickly taken over by Mr. Rove and a group of associates including Mr. Bartlett. Neither man responded to requests for comment.

White House advisers said that Mr. Bush expressed alarm after his return to Washington from the Gulf Coast.

One senior White House official said that Mr. Bush appeared at a senior staff meeting in the Situation Room on Friday and called the results on the ground "unacceptable."

Frankly, at this point, given the political nature of all of the above, the "senior White House official" the Times is quoting could be Rove. And the credibility of this administration has fallen so low with this writer (and many other independents voters) that he can't take it at face value.

If you boil it down, it seems to be this: responsibility is something Democrats must take, common citizens must take and parents tell kids they must take.

But it's not something this administration is willing to take.

This is an opportunity for the American people to see the kind of government the George W. Bush Republicans are all about. Instead of by the people for the people it's by the large corporations for the large corporations. There's a perfectly good word for that, fascism.