FEMA packed with W's pals

NY Daily News ^ | 9/8/05 | Kenneth R. Bazinet

[Crackingham]

The three top jobs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bush went to political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes, the Daily News has learned. Even if Bush were to fire embattled and suddenly invisible FEMA Director Michael Brown over his handling of Hurricane Katrina, the bureaucrat immediately below him is no disaster professional, either.

While Brown ran horse shows in his last private-sector job, FEMA's No. 2 man, deputy director and chief of staff Patrick Rhode, was an advance man for the Bush-Cheney campaign and White House. He also did short stints at the Commerce Department and Small Business Administration.

Rhode's biography posted on FEMA's Web site doesn't indicate he has any real experience in emergency response.

In addition, the agency's former third-ranking official, deputy chief of staff Scott Morris, was a PR expert who worked for Maverick Media, the Texas outfit that produced TV and radio spots for the Bush-Cheney campaign. In June, Morris moved to Florida to become FEMA's long-term recovery director.

"The Bush administration has apparently transformed FEMA from a professional, world-class emergency responder into a dumping ground for former campaign staff and political hacks," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan).

FEMA also is hampered by several midlevel and regional director's jobs currently held by acting directors.

"Just like our military, FEMA should be immune to this kind of political staffing. It should be run by career emergency response professionals," Maloney added.

Traditionally, the Commerce and Labor departments have long been Washington's dumping ground for presidential pals and campaign operatives - not the disaster relief agency.

Government sources blame Bush's first FEMA director, Joe Allbaugh, with turning FEMA into a patronage shop.

He was chief of staff when Bush was Texas' governor and later headed the 2000 Bush-Cheney campaign.

[infocats]

bttt

[infocats]

The NY Daily News, unlike many valid criticisims of the NYT's leftist slant, can't be accused of similar failings. It tends to be blue collar conservative in its orientation.

[liberallarry]

From what I hear there's a lot of truth to this article.

But it still doesn't get to the heart of the matter. An agency can be staffed by professionals and still be lousy...if the professionals are lousy. I was in emergency rescue work for 31 years and saw that clearly. As far as I know there's no sure method of finding good people. Nobody knew Giuliani would perform so well until he was tested.

[George W. Bush]

FEMA also is hampered by several midlevel and regional director's jobs currently held by acting directors.

I commented on this the other day. On FEMA's website, it is surprising how many top staff like Director of Operations and most of the Regional Directors all are listed as 'Acting'.

Makes you wonder what happened to the rest of the staff of an agency that has been around since the Seventies.

[SuziQ]

Where is the evidence that Michael Brown is way over his head? Are you getting this idea from the media? Do you think they would EVER give ANY Bush nominee a break? FEMA did exactly what the agency is supposed to do. In fact, the agency had materials pre-positioned to bring into NO when the Governor gave the go-ahead. FEMA was waiting, as it is supposed to do. It is not Michael Brown's fault that Blanco had decided to starve people out of New Orleans. BY LAW he is not supposed to go in until asked by local authorities.

The MSM keeps throwing around this notion that FEMA didn't do anything for 5 days. That is a load of horse hockey! The winds from the hurricane didn't stop blowing until Tuesday morning. That's when the flooding began and the Coast Guard started rescuing people from rooftops and depositing them on the I-610 bridge. I saw helos dropping water onto that I-610 bridge late on Wednesday. By the way, did you know that the City of New Orleans supposedly had enough food in the Superdome for 15,000 people for three days? Unfortunately, 26,000 people showed up. The City also did not provide any port-o-potties, even though they knew that if there were flooding, the toilets would begin to back up.

FEMA can only deliver items to the places it is told to go. If local folks don't tell FEMA where they need something, the agency will not know where to deliver it. Apparently, NO ONE TOLD FEMA that there were evacuees at the Morial Convention Center. I never heard about them until Geraldo started his rant in front of the center, and I had been watching the coverage almost non-stop for days because I have family on the MS Coast and was waiting for news coverage of their area because I could not reach them.

So you can jump on the bash Michael Brown bandwagon all you want, but I ain't going there!

[EQAndyBuzz]

"So...one question for the NY Daily Spews crew: Who ran FEMA under Clinton? Were they "Clinton cronies" as well? "

They were Clintons friends. Difference is they ran FEMA in Arkansas before coming to Washington.

[theDentist]

While patronage is common on both sides of the aisle, some things should be based solely upon experience. Intelligence, Military, FEMA, etc should be those where experience is the most important factor.

It does sound like Bush blew it with these appointments.

[liberallarry]

Where is the evidence that Michael Brown is way over his head?

Nagin said that the FEMA guys were all crap except for this one John Wayne dude who really knew how to get things done. Then we got to see this dude...and he really was DA MAN!

So you gotta think maybe Nagin knew what he was talking about.

[unsycophant]

The NY Daily News is about a week behind the rest of the MSM papers, which all did pieces like this around August 30, 2005.

The gist is the same no matter which article you care to read: (1) FEMA has been absorbed into Homeland Security and no longer has anyone at cabinet-level, which has weakened the agency and (2) FEMA is being run by an incompetent lawyer who is in over his head.

More of the "Blame President Bush" way of life.

[infocats]

"I hope and pray that the Republican's are NOT going to be chumps, and let the rats contimue with these lies."

Denial ain't just a river in Egypt. I for one as a staunch conservative and Bush supporter, am getting fed up with incompetents holding positions of extraordinary authority, the consequences of which were felt with S.E.C. Chairman Pitt (remeber the Enron and World Com scandals?), and now Brown at FEMA. The facts speak for themselves and your burying your head in the sand do the current administration a disservice. If Cheney and Rumsfeld are one tenth as smart as I know them to be, they would have or should have known about Brown's lack of disaster relief and mitigation experience at the street level. Bush has been getting really bad advice on any number of issues during the past year...and I think he's being set up, by whom I know not, to take a fall, and by extension the Republican Party.

[IamConservative]

What the He** is a "disaster professional"

Blanco seems to be all-pro in her ability to create a disaster..??.. On the surface, have an emergency management agency run in the style of the military is not a bad idea. As we have seen, the Army can flat get a job done. The organization, command structure, discipline, communications, etc. are all excellent.

[roses of sharon]

Why are the major news orgs in NY all packed with political hacks for the DNC?

Where are the profession journalists?

[Just mythoughts]

"James Lee Witt. He had been head of the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services from 1988 to 1992. So in spite of his other failings Clinton at least managed to appoint a FEMA head with some experience in the area."


Yes Witt was quite the professional in distributing our tax dollars, elections and get out the vote can be disasters.

[Just mythoughts]

Congress designed what FEMA is, the regulations, the duties, was all designed by Congress. I think Rush said yesterday Lieberman was the designer. Congress decided to put FEMA within the Homeland Security Agency, they set up the system and if FEMA failed then Congress also flopped.


Now Congress also funded the "first responders" which FEMA is NOT part of. So what did the local and state government do with the dollars sent them from Congress to be prepared as "first responders".

This blaming FEMA is so typical of liberals when thy screw up.

[Condor51]

"disaster professional"
***What the He** is a "disaster professional"***

They're like "Grief Counselors".
Nobody knows where they come from, but they show up anyway.

[George W. Bush]

From FEMA's website: About FEMA: Senior Staff Biographies

A sample of a resume that most would consider to be a emergency response professional would be the Acting Director Of Operations.

Kenneth O. Burris, Jr.
Acting Director of Operations

Kenneth O. Burris was appointed Acting Director of Operations January 2004. In this position, Mr. Burris is responsible for implementing policies and procedures on behalf of the Under Secretary and overseeing the day-to-day response, recovery, mitigation and preparedness activities of FEMA, part of the new Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Burris previously served as Regional Director of FEMA’s Region 4. As Regional Director, he was responsible for coordinating FEMA mitigation, preparedness and disaster response and recovery activities in: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Before accepting this post, Mr. Burris had served as the first Chief Operating Officer of the U.S. Fire Administration since September 1999. Burris oversaw the day-to-day operations of the U.S. Fire Administration, including the National Fire Academy, and serves as the primary advisor to the FEMA Director and the USFA Administrator on overall operations and management of the fire administration.

Before joining FEMA, Mr. Burris had served as a firefighter for more than 22 years, and had been the fire chief in Marietta, Georgia, since 1992. He is credited with applying innovative techniques and strong leadership to that department, which serves as a national model.

A native of Kansas City, Missouri, Burris holds a BS degree in Safety and Fire Protection Engineering Technology from the University of Cincinnati, where he graduated cum laude. He also holds a Masters of Public Administration at Kennesaw University.

Burris has held senior positions with the Georgia Association of Fire Chiefs and the International Association of Fire Chiefs, and is a past president of the Southeastern Association of Fire Chiefs.

The flap over Brown being a horse lawyer for 9 nine years before his FEMA jobs will be compared to the kind of background and qualifications of this Acting Director Of Operations. Some critics might say that even this resume and work experience are insufficient. But there's nothing that looks political about it.

[Condor51]

9/8/05 Kenneth R. Bazinet, NY Daily News
"The three top jobs at the Federal Emergency Management Agency under President Bush went to political cronies with no apparent experience coping with catastrophes, the Daily News has learned."

Fair enough Kenneth. And what exactly was your "experience" prior to becoming a (cough-cough) "journalist".

And not to be picky but how about the "experience" of...

• Hillary Clinton?
  
• Shelia Jackson Lee?
  
• Cindy 'Jihad' McKinney?
  
• Jon Corzine?
  
• Patty Murray?
  
• Maria Cantwell?
  
• etc, etc, etc.

Huh KENNETH.. what "experience" did these brainiacs have in government and/or writing laws that effect every single person in the USA prior to being elected to Congress???

[ravingnutter]

Not to defend Brown (although I do think Nagin and Blanco are the real culprits in this fiasco), but they keep citing the "private sector job", all the while failing to note that, perhaps with the exception of a policeman or fireman, there are very few private sector jobs dealing with the issues that FEMA has to deal with. If you will check his resume at the link below, it states that he also served as FEMA's Deputy Director and the agency's General Counsel prior to this position. He also served as an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight while attending law school.

Michael D. Brown

Assistant city manager is not a private sector job, but did involve dealing with emergency services oversight, so to say that he had no experience at all seems a little disingenuous.

[dennisw]

Burris family seems to be big in the South, I knew one.

[George W. Bush]

Notice that Burris was appointed to the fire job in 1999. He is a Clinton holdover. But he does have some very relevant experience and professional standing among fire departments and organizations. I doubt he got that reputation just by being a cog in some Dim party machine.