Bush rhetoric evokes other Gulf

BY CRAIG GORDON | WASHINGTON BUREAU

September 16, 2005

WASHINGTON - President George W. Bush last night elevated rebuilding the storm-shattered Gulf Coast into a central mission of his second term, echoing the rallying tone and even some of the language he used to describe the mission of the first, fighting the war on terrorism.

"We will do what it takes. We will stay as long as it takes," Bush said last night - and a casual listener might have wondered whether he was talking about the war in Iraq or the struggle to rebuild New Orleans.

A few of his prescriptions for recovery had echoes of their own - of Bush's own campaign slogans about an "opportunity society" driven by conservative ideals. Bush proposed using tax incentives and enterprise zones - and not merely government handouts - to spur job creation and entrepreneurship.

Even with those programs, Bush's speech signaled that he would be presiding over one of the world's largest public works projects, with a price tag believed to be $200 billion or more - a number Bush did not utter last night.

This is not how Bush wanted to spend his second term, but he seems to have decided he had no choice, pummeled by all-time low approval ratings and accusations his government was indifferent to poor African-American storm victims.

The criticism has gone straight to the heart of Bush's central political appeal - that he was the man whom Americans could trust to keep them safe from a catastrophic attack.

So Bush sought to confront those questions last night with a second near-mea culpa - from a president who has been reluctant to utter even one before this week - and echoes of the whatever-it-takes language that Bush used in the days and months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

It remained to be seen last night whether Bush could erase all of the doubts about his handling of Katrina with a single speech. And in some ways, the reconstruction of New Orleans is a trickier task than the war on terror.

For one thing, the country had not rallied to his side the way it did after 9/11, but instead split bitterly on his handling of the storm. For another, there is no enemy to bind the nation behind him. And far from the kind of quick retaliation against an enemy like the Taliban in Afghanistan, there is no way to raise an army against Mother Nature, and the progress toward reconstruction in the Gulf will be slow and incremental.

Bush's two missions do have a couple of things in common, and both of them are highly problematic for the president. They cost an enormous amount of money, and it's hard to tell exactly what victory looks like.

Bush sought to appease fiscal hawks in his own party worried about Katrina's budget-busting effects by embracing some of the free-market initiatives touted by Republicans on the Hill and Washington think tanks that have been lobbying the White House to use the Gulf Coast as a veritable laboratory for conservative ideals.

There were parts of the plan that conservatives could embrace, from a "Gulf Opportunity Zone," with tax relief for small businesses, to education vouchers for displaced students.

"He sees this as an opportunity to revamp the entire relationship of the federal government to the region," said Michael Franc, vice president of government relations for the conservative Heritage Foundation, after the speech.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford), incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said: "It laid out a blueprint for the future ... combining the best of the public and private sectors."

But already, Democrats have accused conservatives of trying to push their agenda on the backs of storm victims. The Rev. Jesse Jackson said in an interview that Bush needs to assure storm victims that "insurance companies and predators will not gentrify them out of the city."

Few presidents have had to confront two such major catastrophes - 9/11 and Katrina - and it seems clear from last night's speech that Bush's call for Congressional action is likely to crowd out some of his other domestic priorities, at least in the short term, such as making tax cuts permanent or a massive Social Security overhaul. Right now, though, Bush's first priority is trying to turn around public perceptions of his handling of the storm, even if it means other priorities must wait.