White House forced to reverse dumb policy

The Post:

The White House reversed course today and reinstated a key wage protection for workers doing Hurricane Katrina reconstruction, bowing to pressure from a group of moderate House Republicans who argued that local residents were being left out of the recovery and that the Gulf Coast was becoming a magnet for illegal immigrants.
The Bush administration had decided in the days after Katrina devastated the region to waive the Davis-Bacon Act, a Depression-era law that guarantees construction workers the prevailing local wage when they're being paid with federal tax dollars. At the time, the administration insisted the waiver on hurricane-related work would save the government money and speed recovery efforts.
The move immediately came under vocal criticism from Democrats and labor unions. More quietly, a group of moderate Republicans -- many from districts in industrial areas with a high concentration of blue-collar workers -- began to lobby the White House and the congressional leadership for Davis-Bacon to be reinstated.
This morning, leaders of that group were summoned to the White House by Chief of Staff Andrew Card and told that the administration had changed its mind. The law goes back into effect Nov. 8, exactly two months after the original decision to suspend it.

That had to hurt. Now if they'll just reverse every other wrongheaded policy.