Posted on 09/28/2005 1:00:53 PM PDT by crazyhorse691
Republican members of Congress haven't yet done enough to get to the bottom of problems surrounding the response to Hurricane Katrina. Only an independent inquiry can do that. But at least they recognize a fool when they see one.
Michael Brown, who quit as director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency after Katrina, was back on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, defending his response to the hurricane that killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands more trapped in the floods, cesspools and crime that followed.
He blamed everyone in sight except, of course, himself. New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin. Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. The "hysteric" news media.
"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Brown said in a display of arrogance and denial in Tuesday's House committee hearing that was nothing short of weird.
There are plenty of people to blame, including those at the state and local level, for the poor response. And Hurricane Katrina was an immense force of nature against which human efforts were bound to fall short.
But Brown and consequently his agency froze in the crisis. His biggest mistake -- aside from taking the job at FEMA in the first place -- was failing to lead the agency he was appointed to lead. That was certainly the case in the days immediately before the hurricane, during the storm and afterward. It was also true in the years before the storm, when FEMA's role was marginalized with little or no effective opposition from Brown.
To their credit, Republicans leading the hearing had no stomach for Brown's performance, either.
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., told Brown: "I'm happy you left. That kind of look in the lights like a deer tells me you weren't capable of doing that job."
Shays spoke for the nation.
90,000 Square Miles of devastation. Shays, stuff that up your rectum and pontificate from the throne you pompus piece of crap. Yea, you woulda had that covered before the eye made land. What nonsense....Bastards just muggin' for the cameras. Shameless.
This soap opera type performance is just one more reason I left the Republican Party. The difference between the Republicans and the Democrats has closed to a tight hairline crack. It's like comparing bad to worse.
That useless RINO sure didn't speak for me.
I really think it's time to disband FEMA and let the states handle these situations themselves. The electric utilities have no problem expediting repair on their own systems without the use of national guard, the military, or FEMA.
The part of the interview I liked best was when Brown was asked, "If you had it to do over again, would you evacuate earlier?" He replied, "FEMA does not evacuate." Congress and Rino Shays with his moderate & liberal cowards just do not get it. They are stupid and think we are (sic) more stupider.
The piece is credited to 'aging editors'. I vote to change it to 'senile editors'.
These procedeedings are nothing more than "We must do something to protect our phoney baloney jobs" nonsense.
My arse. You don't speak for me Congressman Shays!
I hate it when somebody states they are speaking for me. What a pinnacle of arrogance. For all those that have come down on Brown, I have one one question. Name one specific thing that Brown did that was wrong (other than the fact that he didn't recognize how incompetent Blanco and Nagin were fast enough).
He's from tiny Connecticut - he has no idea what 90,000 square miles is.
"Only an independent inquiry can do that."
Great sound bite, but I think there is a constitutional requirement of congressional oversight of Federal Agencies. It would be more truthful to write, "Only an outsourced inquiry can do that."
I don't really know if Brown did anything wrong or not, but the only criticism I ever see is that he "froze" or "didn't do his job". Since these are really sort of vague criticisms, does anybody have any specific examples of functions that FEMA was supposed to do, but didn't do because they weren't prepared?
"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Brown said
This is exactly what I was saying by the end of that first week. It was so clear that was the situation. FEMA needed to step in and fill the empty shoes of the governor and mayor. Something they hadn't had to do before, because normally the state & local goernment isn't so darned incompetent.
As Brown went on to say, he's not a dictator and he can't force the state & local government to cooperate with each other and do the jobs they should be doing.
These idiots at the Oregonian still don't seem to realize that FEMA is a response agency. If the state & locals don't tell FEMA what they need, then FEMA can't respond. Why is it so hard for people to understand that?
Absolute nonesense. And to think we pay them to do this.
susie
No rational person watching the gross incompetence and negligence of the local Rat patrol in LA would predominantly blame FEMA. It takes a blind ideologue or sniveling party hacks to do that. Even worse was the traitorous RINO SOBs who laid all the blame on Brown, when DemonRAT incompetence was plainly obvious. Rather than attack the enemy, they attacked Brown.
Hurrumph!
"and has been in Congress way too long. You know he's been in to long, his hands were shaking the whole time he spoke, makes you wonder if his brain still works. Bryd is another fossil that needs to go.An awful thought just occurred, what if the terrorist plane had hit the capital building with all the windbags in it. Maybe a fresh start ,, forget that thought we'd have a bunch of spouses taking over their seats. Very few good politicans left
Good point. I stand corrected.:-)
It is apparently next to impossible for almost anyone (except Freepers perhaps?!) to understand this, judging from what I keep hearing on TV. Apparently our congresscritters don't understand that either. Woe to us!
susie
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