Posted on 09/08/2005 12:59:12 AM PDT by Anti-Bubba182
He's been called an idiot, an incompetent and worse. The vilification of federal disaster chief Michael Brown, emerging as chief scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the government's response to Hurricane Katrina, has ratcheted into the stratosphere. Democratic members of Congress are taking numbers to call for his head.
"I would never have appointed such a person," said New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Let's bring in someone who is a professional," urged Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
A more visceral indictment came from closer to the calamity. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish near New Orleans, said the bureaucracy "has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area."
"Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot," he told CBS. "Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."
Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi, just back from a week surveying damage in his home state, allowed that "mistakes were made" but tried to counsel restraint Tuesday as calls for Brown's removal escalated. But even Lott displayed some of the potent emotions spawned by the horrific conditions on the Gulf Coast.
"If somebody said, `You pick somebody to hammer,' I don't know who I'd pick," he told reporters. "I did threaten to physically beat a couple of people in the last couple of days, figuratively speaking."
It's not uncommon for the Federal Emergency Management Agency _ and whoever is in charge at the time _ to catch blame in the messy aftermath of disaster.
It happened after Hugo hit South Carolina in 1989 and Andrew struck Florida in 1992.
After Andrew, Mikulski slammed the agency for a "pathetically sluggish" response, and on the ground, Dade County emergency director Kathleen Hale famously summed up the frustration felt throughout the stricken areas when she cried, "Where the hell is the cavalry?"
"There is nothing more powerful than the urge to blame," said Eric Dezenhall, a crisis-management consultant who helps corporate leaders and other prominent figures try to repair tattered images. "It happens every time. It is a deeply embedded archetype in the human mind."
He said the Brown episode is playing out in classic fashion.
"You can follow the steps," he said. "First, outrage. Second, the headline: 'What went wrong?' Third, the telltale memo that supposedly suggests somebody knew and did nothing. I just don't find this to be unique at all."
Brown, a 50-year-old lawyer, in some ways is an easy target.
The former head of the International Arabian Horse Association, Brown had no background in disaster relief when old college friend and then- FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh hired him to serve as the agency's general counsel in 2001.
"There is a Jay Leno-esque comic undertone to his background," said Dezenhall. "It sort of conjures up a who's-on-first kind of thing."
But the dim view of Brown's qualifications by senators seems to have emerged only in hindsight. Members of both parties seemed little troubled by his background at 2002 Senate hearings that led to his confirmation as deputy FEMA chief.
Indeed, Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who led those hearings, called Brown's long-ago stint as assistant city manager in Edmond, Okla., a "particularly useful experience" because he had responsibility for local emergency services.
As FEMA chief, Brown has pressed for greater attention to natural disaster planning, including strategies for a major hurricane in New Orleans, and he has had to contend with cuts to FEMA's operating budget while more attention was paid to fighting terrorism.
But as the enormity of the Gulf Coast damage gradually came into clearer focus, Brown did not help his case with a number of comments seen as insensitive or ill-advised. For example, he acknowledged last week that he didn't know there were some 20,000 evacuees enduring heinous conditions at the New Orleans convention center until a day after their difficulties had been widely reported in the news.
ABC's Ted Koppel was incredulous as he asked Brown, "Don't you guys watch television? Don't you guys listen to the radio?"
"Forgive me for beating up on you there," Koppel later told Brown, "but you are the only guy from the federal government who is coming out to take your medicine."
The doses keep getting stronger. But, for now at least, President Bush is standing by his embattled FEMA chief.
"Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," the president told him last week.
And Brown, for his part, is trying to shrug off the criticism.
"People want to lash out at me, lash out at FEMA," he told reporters. "I think that's fine. Just lash out, because my job is to continue to save lives."
The hearings will be partisan and vicious.
Personally, I think the Democrat Mayor of New Orleans and the Democrat Governor of Louisiana should be getting all the heat. It was their supreme and unbridled idiocy that killed thousands (if not tens of thousands) of Americans.
FEMA did its job. This is evident in Mississippi and Alabama. The only breakdown was due entirely to the sheer and utter incompetence of the Louisiana governor and the idiot mayor. Until the Democrats acknowledge it, they'd best be prepared for a major butt-kicking.
It seems to me that Clinton appointed one of his State Police body guards to head FEMA. Isn't that correct?
Search the page. Blanco doesn't appear. This is a noticeable trend. Blanco is disappearing as a player in this whole story.
They will have to play that card to take pressure off the Governor and Mayor who have a lot to answer for.
I notice. The thing will be spun that way by MSM.
There are problems in MS and AL as well. Let's don't whitewhash FEMA just because a Republican happens to be in the whitehouse. GWB himself has said things need to improve. So--let's identify what has to be fixed and fix it. Just because the Democrats are being partisan is no excuse for the GOP to play the same game. The people are smart enough to know who's serious about this and who's playing politics as usual. Thereis a stellar opportunity here for the GOP to cement its place as the party of competence. But If the Katrina aftermath devolves into a finger pointing orgy, the public is going to go into "a pox on both your houses" mode.
I hear Hillary Clinton is considering the appointment of Gov. Kathleen Blanco to be head of FEMA if she is elected President.
Such as? Anything on par with what's going on in LA?
GWB himself has said things need to improve.
There's always room for improvement in all things. Personally, I don't see how FEMA could have deployed faster without the request and OK from the LA governor. That's kind of required. And deployments on that scale are not simple or easy. It requires a lot of logistics and planning to go from Zero to Three-State-Rescue and Recovery.
Also, it is my belief that the State and Local governments are supposed to have the most say in how things are done; not the Feds. If the State and Local people can't do their own damned jobs, that's not the fault of the Fed.
Arrange it so Brown's every appearance is opposite of Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco. Brown will come out clean and smilin' every time.
There are always lessons to be learned by all responsible.
Then I'll simply have to make sure she gets kicked back to the front row for maximum exposure and ridicule.
Eh...it's a hobby.
I think within a matter of days, Nagin and Blanco are going to bring each other down. Nagin has already made a few remarks about Blanco and yesterday she pulled rank on Nagin.
The #2 guy at the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services told me that his boss - James Lee Witt - was an idiot too.
Hope you are right.
What should be said about Brown, that is not being said, is that he was hired for the job "BY THE SENATE" after his conformation in 2002. That's why we have the hearings, to give senate approval. The same could and should be said about the war in Iraq.
Interesting, to hear the press tell it Witt is a cross between
Jesus and George Washington.
Don't hold your breath, if you're looking for honorable behavior from a dim-bulb lib.
hmmm... The AP titles an article with a headline that implies an overall dissatisfaction with the FEMA head, then goes on to quote crazies/democrats. Yeah, the AP has no bias.
The dems were salivating at the potential loss of life before the hurricane hit. The majority of criticism of Nagin and Blanco here started during the live threads as we watched with disbelief at the sheer scope of incompetence with which they "performed" their duties. That they were dems was beside the point.
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