Bitter Brown Blasts Bush Administration: "They're Looking for a Fall Guy"

Former FEMA Director Michael Brown offered Chris Wallace and Fox News Sunday an exclusive this morning, and in return Wallace gave Brown a platform from which to tee off on the Bush administration and in particular on DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and Homeland Security Advisor Fran Townsend.

"I think we had dropped the ball long before Katrina hit in not doing the kind of catastrophic disaster planning that the federal government should have been doing."

"Secretary Chertoff's order for me to stay [in the operations center] in Baton Rouge is one of the tipping points that made this disaster worse."

When Wallace quoted Fran Townsend, Pres. Bush's Homeland Security Advisor, saying:

"Michael Brown chose not to follow his chain of command. That can't happen," Brown blasted back:

"DHS and Chertoff don't provide anything that I need in that disaster. Chertoff can't move one bottle of water. He can't move one MRE, and for Fran Townsend to now come out and say I wasn't following the chain of command completely belies exactly how we operated from the day this administration came in, from September 11 all the way through the Florida hurricances."

When Brown commended Chertoff's predecessor, Tom Ridge, for "staying away" and not "interfering," an apparently shocked Wallace responded: "Interfere? They're your boss!"

As Brown explained it, the problem was that "I'd give an order . . . Chertoff would give a different order. There was this confusion about who was in charge. I should have been in charge there. Chertoff should not have been second-guessing those decisions."

Wallace: "You have said that calling Chertoff was a waste of time." Brown: "Correct."

Wallace then displayed two emails that Brown had sent during the heat of the disaster complaining about his FEMA attire and making inquiries about sitters for his dog. Wallace wondered why Brown had time for these trivialities, yet "you can't take the time to call Secretary Chertoff?"

Brown defended himself, claiming the emails were "a bit of levity" he analogised to a heart surgeon who jokes about playing basketball in the middle of surgery to keep things light and motivate the troops.

Brown then unloaded his biggest guns on Chertoff and Townsend: "They are being disingenuous and looking for a fall guy."

When Wallace asked whether the government is better prepared than it was before Katrina to deal with a disaster, Brown concluded with a very pessismistic assessment:

"Chris, I think we're worse off. [There are] hundreds of vacancies that [FEMA] can't fill. There's confusion about what FEMA is supposed to do and not do. The partnerships between FEMA and state and local governments have been broken and will continue to be broken by the path that the Secretary [Chertoff] is headed down."

Brown's final recommendation was that the American people "demand right now that FEMA be pulled out [of DHS], make it independent, and cut out the baloney."

I wish Brown would SHUT UP. What a whiner.

He must have been caught in a lie to President Bush to have been fired so quickly. W must have known that Brown would be a Bush Basher from then on.

It doesn't matter if Brown lies constantly now, he's on the side of the 'rats and the ancient MSM will use him as long as he is useful. He is their current darling.

I missed the first 15 minutes of Fox Sunday today, but the panel never even mentioned President Bush's very successful trip to India and Pakistan. It is so infuriating.

I do not see where Brown blasted Bush. He said he could always get what he wanted the best I remember. I felt bad for Brown from the beginning and that is unusual for me because I very seldom feel sympathetic toward lawyers. Today I am convinced that Brown is a skilled lawyer covering his a$$ and the more he talks the more I am convinced he was more culpable than I had thought.
No doubt government is too big and bloated but his response to Chertoff and Ridge being his boss let the cat out of the bag. As most lawyers he had too have the feeling he was in charge,go back and look at it. Of course in my opinion he should have been in charge of the Federal response from down there.
The sad state of affairs is today the same as it has been for 40 years. The more people in the chain of command the more that gets lost in the translation and the more covering of rear ends after the event has unfolded. But I can truthfully say a lawyer very seldom takes responsibility for his mistakes and for the number of mistakes they make very few are brought out and handled in public because they police themselves. The ABA is running America and answers to nothing but other lawyers. Their fraternity is much stronger than the Blue Wall has ever been.
Look at the numbers of cases where innocent people get convicted because of poor representation and you very seldom hear of a lawyer being sued or disciplined and most assuredly they are not held up to public scrutiny. Getting to the real crux of the matter. Apparently there was a lot of glitches in communications and they have always been there.In these storm's atmospheric conditions are always going to baffle certain radio communications. One thing for certain in most cases where telephone lines are underground the telephone provides better communication than most anything. Ever noticed how it seems the telephone never goes out. Next there should always be one person on the scene, defending Brown, who should have the say so and ability to coordinate from there and not have to wait for instructions from above. Next as always the case the local authorities should always have the authority to issue evacuation orders and have those under them to comply.The governor of Louisiana and the mayor of New Orleans are the only people that can be held responsible for the evacuation. The only place the Feds screwed up were on shipping in supplies. They do not have the authority to come in and take over the best I see it. You see how things started moving when the National Guard General took over. There must be an absolute designation on a local level as to who is in charge in an emergency and these territory squabbles must cease.
Leave it to the politicians to make all the TV appearances and point fingers and nothing will ever get done. It all boils down to control and communications.

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