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.
He also backstabbed Tom Delay, siding with RINO chris shays, saying that Tom Delay should step aside over democrat trumped up charges.
What specifically are the charges, based in fact, against him with regards to the whole Hurricane Katrina affair?
Tancredo, or Brown, or both?
Brown's lack of experience in emergency management isn't the only apparent bit of padding on his resume, which raises questions about how rigorously the White House vetted him before putting him in charge of FEMA. Under the "honors and awards" section of his profile at FindLaw.com — which is information on the legal website provided by lawyers or their offices—he lists "Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University". However, Brown "wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," says Charles Johnson, News Bureau Director in the University Relations office at the University of Central Oklahoma (formerly named Central State University). "He may have been an adjunct instructor," says Johnson, but that title is very different from that of "professor." Carl Reherman, a former political science professor at the University through the '70s and '80s, says that Brown "was not on the faculty." As for the honor of "Outstanding Political Science Professor," Johnson says, "I spoke with the department chair yesterday and he's not aware of it."
The sooner Bush gets rid of him the better.
But we still need an independent investigation by a committee that has NO POLITICIANS on it. They need former military officers, planners, and auditors with no political bias to look at this.
I'm confident that when they do, Bush will come off all right. He might have a little explaining to do about the delay in getting the Nat. Guard in, but the bulk of the blame should rest on Nagin and Blanco, I think.
Uh can you give me your resume so I can go over it with a fine tooth comb to see if a job you had nearly 30 years ago is semantically correct.
Other than the first 4 days...how's he doing now?
It seems they've finally got a pretty good effort up and running? So why fire him now? How good would that be for morale and efficiency at FEMA, right now?
Mike Brown served as FEMA deputy for how long? And as FEMA Director last year, how well did FEMA perform last year when the hurricanes hit Florida relentlessly and tore up the Gulf coast and Pensacola? Did FEMA's working with a State where the Governor knew what in the hell HE was supposed to do...make any difference at all? I didn't hear any calls for Brown's head from armchair analysts last year. Nor did I hear any praise.
Was FEMA supposed to know that the Governor of Louisiana was incompetent, the Mayor of NO was worse, and that the NO police would fold like a cheap suit when faced with a disaster?
Time to re-visit the issue once things are stabilized.
We have a real Rainbow Coalition forming. Blacks blame white, whites blame Brown, Green Party blames everybody but red faced Democrats and we sit here in a purple rage wondering when 1 of these yellow Democratic politicians will turn blue in the face and die.
This finger-pointing and screaming for heads to roll is so juvenile. We all know the saying that one "aw-sh@t" wipes out a thousand "atta-boys", but this is ridiculous. Pointing back to FEMA's response last year during the massive destruction in Florida as the result of 4 hurricanes ought to count for something, if nothing else than to highlight the differences between then and now...and it's not Brown.
Like I read in an earlier post, things go so much better when local and state authorities work with the Feds instead of against them. All this partisan infighting is gonna get us killed!
tancredo could have given support to Delay when he was in the MSM crosshairs but he didn't.
convenient target, because he was appointed by bush. The leaders and elected officials of Louisiana, and NOLA, are responsible for the lack of followup.
Local government is first line of defense, State is second, and federal government is third.
The mayor, governor, and Congressmen and Senators are to blame FIRST, the feds don't move in until they are called by the preceeding personnel. Everyone was afraid of FEMA getting too much control. EVERYONE, Democrats, and republicans alike.
Doesn't anyone remember Richard Jewel?
I think the President should tap the vast resource of people highly qualified to handle the aftermath of a class 4 hurricane, slamming into an area where a million people live beneath sea level and the devestated area is larger than Great Britain.
There are hundreds of qualified people. Just how many do you know?
When you can't get the cooperation of the first line support people, just what do you do? Should the President have declared Martial Law in LA and sent in Troups? Hell, they are not flood workers, or law keepers. The military are trained killers and they should be used for that.
How many amongst us could have comprehended anything like this outcome?
NOT ONE!
OK, 30 years ago I was crawling.
However, my resume IS correct.
Blanco and Nagin failed miserably. They should pay as well. But despite the blind loyalty to the Bush adminstration sometimes found on this board, the federal response was initially a mess as well. Given this guy went on national TV four days after the hurricane and admitted he didn't know where people were sheltered (yes, Nagin and Blanco should have given him a complete list, but anyone with any sort of news coverage knew) is inexcusible.
That sounds about right. But Bush's poll numbers were and are still low (after 9/11 they were extremely high). Beware the MSM highlighting of the inexperience of the FEMA leadership -- and their personal connections to the Bush political team. This is the MSM's line: competent leadership was replace by cronies.
Let me put it this way. If Tancredo wants him fired, my opinion of Brown just went up.
Irrelevant and non-responsive.
Besides, the padding that appears to exist in his resume is more than "semantically" incorrect listings. It appears there are listings that are false, and that never actually happened.
So, your statement is a misrepresentation of the charges as of this moment.
Please try again when you can be more intellectually honest.
Please note my post #24. As an actual college professor, this kind of apparent deceit makes my blood boil
When everthing goes right (as in Florida) the plans made beforehand by the lower level employees work as designed, allowing Brown (Right) to take credit. 
If things go pear-shaped and a decision needs to be made at the top all he can to is quote from the list of what was intended to be done.
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