Posted on 09/09/2005 7:08:45 AM PDT by Millee
Rep. Tom Tancredo on Thursday became one of the first congressional Republicans to call for the ouster of embattled Federal Emergency Management Agency director Michael Brown.
Echoing criticism leveled by numerous Democrats this week, the Littleton congressman said he had lost confidence in Brown, a former Colorado lawyer who has been under fire for his agency's response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster. Tancredo has been harshly critical of state and local officials in Louisiana, too, saying they deserve 90 percent of the blame for the mismanaged relief efforts.
But he said the FEMA director should be removed from his post "as part of what I would hope would be a thorough housecleaning from this whole event. I certainly believe he has demonstrated a lack of leadership to the extent I think a replacement is necessary.
"But believe me," Tancredo added, "it's just the tip of the proverbial iceberg in terms of the sort of personnel shifting that needs to go on."
Democrats, including Sen. Ken Salazar, of Denver, Rep. Mark Udall, of Eldorado Springs, and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, from California, already have called on President Bush to remove Brown.
Until now, the White House has rebuffed the requests and Brown has said he's continuing to do his job despite the criticism.
"It really hasn't surprised me that we've gotten into the blame game," Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., said Wednesday. "I don't think this is the time to fire people. I think it's the time we need to help people."
Earlier this week, Tancredo harshly criticized Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, both Democrats, saying they had "demonstrated mind- boggling incompetence," and urged Congress not to give emergency relief funds directly to their agencies without strict federal oversight.
Tancredo now questions whether Brown has the confidence to remain on the job overseeing the federal disaster response.
"I don't know how much trust there is in him, and I think at this point in time you desperately need people leading the effort here who are deemed to be capable and have the trust of the people who work for them," Tancredo said.
But somehow the 10 percent of the blame is the part that got the headline.
He is not a news hog like the Clinton guy called Witt.
Quietly going about doing his work.
A disaster plan is only as good as its weakest link. Michael Brown was not the strongest link...but he was certainly not the weakest.
He is however, a convenient target.
I think Bush has to fire him. Especially with the resume padding allegations on top of everything else.
tancredo going the scarborough route, giving Monica's to the MSM.
Probably what will happen is that Brown will be kept around long enough to disctract the Dems. Then he'll resign.
I don't know...because all I have heard, has come from the MSM, who I don't trust or believe...
I did hear a man call in a radio show this morning, that lives in Vero Beach Florida...and said that last year, when they had two hurricanes hit in two weeks...
That FEMA, with Brown as it's head, did a TERRIFIC job...was right there for them...and he had no complaints.
His thoughts are, if you have a Governor like Jeb Bush, that will work WITH Fema, it works...
But, if you have a Governor, like Blanco, that is thwarting every agency that wanted to help....then they come out looking bad...
SOOO--bottom line, I am not ready to blame anyone right now, except Blanco and Nagin.
Main Entry: Peter Principle
Function: noun
Etymology: Laurence J. Peter born 1919 American (Canadian-born) educator
: an observation: in a hierarchy employees tend to rise to the level of their incompetence
I'm surprised he didn't issue a press release to announce the press release about the press release where he's going to jump on the GOP-bashing bandwagon. He's usually so very subtle about these things.
tancredisnista parroting the MSM I see. You guys have no shame.
BTW, give me your resume so that I can go through it with a fine tooth comb and see if a job you had some 30 years ago is semantically correct.
Blanco and nagin messed up the evacuation, blanco refused to allow fema to allow supplies into the convention center fearing a riot.
Blanco has been criminally negligable.
All firing Brown would do is take Blanco off the hook.
Fema does what the governors request and the governors have veto power.
You never heard about Brown during florida's 4 hurricanes last year. I wonder why. Because Jeb ordered evacuations
3 days before, asked other states for guard help 3 days before, let supplies in. And in florida you had competent mayors and county administrators.
BTW, Brown was confirmed 98-0 in a democrat controlled Senate in 2002, remember jumpin jim jeffords.
I'm not sure I'm ready to be a fellow Freeper before you've been here a bit longer, but if you really want to know, there is a search feature and MANY threads on what people think.
The fact that you don't know what freepers think shows you need a little more seasoning.
FEMA is a representation of a huge government body that takes forever to get moving.
Brown is the closest they can get to Bush and if he fires him then they scream incompentent! at Bush for hiring him in the first place. None of these allegations surfaced during the Florida storms, I think we've seen that FEMA fails when the state either sits on it's hands, throws up it's hands or screams stop.
I had never heard of Michael Brown until Katrina, but so far I'm not impressed.
Unless he has a reasonable explanation for his apparent resume padding, he should resign. If he won't resign, he should be fired.
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