I was wondering which bloggers would step up to acknowledge Brown's apparent competence during the video. I mentioned in at my place. Those emails from him are still pretty damning but it during that briefing at least he appeared to be doing his job.
Posted by eRobin at March 3, 2006 07:46 PMHe's standing up. Bravo.
BUT, he's still defending Bush. Without justification, I feel.
Posted by Zappatero at March 3, 2006 08:48 PMYeah, sounds like many liberal bloggers and us, the commenters, made a slightly bad call on Brown in light of the video. Still, he was in charge of FEMA. He could've done more, despite the lack of support from Bush, the administration and Chertoff. And he should have been speaking out publicly a long time ago, really. There's a point where loyalty to your bosses needs to end and your duty to the public takes over. Brown didn't reach that point until well after they turned him into a scapegoat.
Posted by Brian Bell at March 3, 2006 10:48 PMYeah, y'all forgot that he handled the four Florida canes the previous year with standing colors. No complaints from anybody. Did y'all also pick up the assurances to the WH from Gov. Blanco that the levies were intact hours after they weren't?
Go ahead, pile on when a guy's down. It makes you feel good.
Posted by peter at March 4, 2006 04:30 AMPeter, apparently you did not get the post by Steve Soto. The difference between you and the rest of us, is when we make an error, we have absolutely no problem in confessing it. When have you or any another other Bush apologist said you were wrong or made a judgement that was incorrect. Never.
Posted by Judith at March 4, 2006 04:43 AMI agree that Brown was unfairly savaged for his role during the immediate crisis. I do fault him for not resigning years earlier when it became apparent that his agency was not being given the attention, direction and resources necessary to accomplish the job tasked it. At the very least he could have fought for the agency publicly, but he chose not to do so. The new videos show that he was not a total failure, like his bosses, but merely a below average adminstrator. That is still a large improvement in his image.
BTW, FEMA did not do a good job re the hurricanes in FL the preceding year. Just ask most of the people on the ground in FL what they think of Dubya's FEMA.
Posted by PrahaPartizan at March 4, 2006 06:29 AMJudith, just remind the troll that he is among the small 34% minority in this country that still insists on apologizing for the sheer stupidity, incompetency, and corruption of this administration...he's his base, the group of people that Bush happily stated,(paraphrasing) "You can fool some of the people all of the time and those are who I am targetting".
As for heckuva job Brownie, although I still feel he was in a job that he was not adequately qualified for, he showed some ability and some common sense (which is often lacking in this administration) in recognizing the seriousness/magnitude of the disaster. He proved his worth to me when I withnessed him testify and Smilin Norm Coleman was mad because Brownie was not willing to serve as the scapegoat for Junior for all things gone wrong during Katrina. Coleman even used his, "My time is up" to escape some obvious berating from Brownie who was fighting back quite adeptly.
I agree this whole disaster goes further up the chain of command...something of this magnitude, the big bosses should have been hands on instead of strumming guitars or eating cake with McCain while people were drowning and dying.
The only other thing I will say is that if Brownie can rehabilitate his reputation as quickly as he did with his recent testimony and these videos, is Rove capabable of doing the same for Lame duck, Shooter and their party before election time? The American public has a short attention span...plenty of time between now and elections. I know Rove isn't a miracle worker and Bushco has an extensive record of failure, but look at the number of willing dupes to this day that inhabit this country.
Posted by emal at March 4, 2006 06:43 AMYeah, y'all forgot that he handled the four Florida canes the previous year with standing colors. No complaints from anybody.
Election year. Jeb Bush. FEMA grants given to those who were not effected by the hurricanes. It's called "buying votes."
Posted by ann at March 4, 2006 07:03 AMMy right wing nut sister from Florida has friends still trying to have FEMA do their job.
We should really examine the insurance industry in this country, what a scam. What a lobby though.
Posted by bbtb at March 4, 2006 07:05 AMI'm sorry, but everyone, especially Bush, was preening for the cameras, Brownie included. He made the foolish mistake of believing that the higher ups had the responsibility to make things work properly, and learned the hard way that in this admin, the lower downs are the designated scapegoats. If was truly doing his job, he would produce memos and letters and emails and phone logs that show him begging for more resources, for funding, long before Katrina was a twinkle in Mother Nature's eye. As with 9-11, hope that nothing too big and politically damaging would happen during their reign was their plan.
Posted by iamcoyote at March 4, 2006 07:35 AMBush and Brown couldn't figure out how to renew your tags if they worked at DMV. However, they would do far less damage employed there.
Posted by TIKI AL at March 4, 2006 08:19 AMI would like to hear Brown explain (1) his offer to the White House to keep his mouth shut if they would cover his legal expenses and (2) why FEMA turned back people and organizations who rode to New Orleanians' rescue, and his part in that.
Posted by gmanedit at March 4, 2006 08:28 AMI agree with Steve.
However he was still undeniably unqualified for the position. I'm still glad that he is gone and very happy that his unqualified appointment was exposed.
Posted by Simp at March 4, 2006 08:41 AMA bit unfair to Brownie? Whatever.
The crucial aspect of the recent Katrina videotapes/transcripts is confirmation (yet again) of the awe-inspiring incompetence of Nero Jr.
Told about possible flooding, levee over-topping, breaching, he asks no questions, hears nothing whatever about how the government is prepared to deal with such a disaster (in a beloved, historic national treasure sitting below sea level). He then blithely gets on the phone to the credulous Loosi'anans and tells them everything has been taken care of, even though any fool watching the video could see that Brown was telling him the exact opposite.
As always, Nero's conception of being preznident constitutes uninvolved, detached, unaware, ignorant, feckless play-acting that results in catastrophe for the nation. He can't stand being involved in this boring "detail" shitola. He thinks it's essentially a ceremonial position! Except he gets to decide if we bomb someone.
After Nero, there is simply no other candidate in the running for Worst President Ever. Not by ten Texas miles. And I doubt anyone will ever challenge him for the honor.
Posted by euzoius at March 4, 2006 09:05 AMAs Atrios said, he should have come forward when he could have saved people's lives. Now he comes forward to save his ass. He doesn't deserve any credit at all.
Posted by iamcoyote at March 4, 2006 09:28 AMBush and Brown couldn't figure out how to renew your tags if they worked at DMV. However, they would do far less damage employed there.
TIKI, God forbid; every tag would be on the wrong car, they would be on the take for identity theft and probably be part of a car theft ring.
These imbeciles would fuck up a wet dream!
Posted by bbtb at March 4, 2006 10:53 AMI don't think it was a bad call. The knock on Brown was always that he was a bad manager (as it turns out, true - management is more than looking sharp at meetings, which appears to be his strong suit).
That he was venal enough to watch people die without speaking up or taking a stand because he had his future to consider and that he's now willing to speak up now because he has his future to consider endears him to me not a great deal more.
Mr. Bush and Mr. Chertoff keep saying they were getting their news from the teevee. What was on the teevee? Mr. Brown saying that everything was spiffy and nobody knew that people were going to the convention center.
He could have saved a lot of those people. He chose not to because his career meant more to him than their lives.
By me he's still a pig.
Posted by julia at March 4, 2006 11:36 AMI'm with Steve. Mea culpa. It took Brown a long time to realize he was supposed to fail - that's why he was hired. Some friend, that chimp. I think Brown really thought he was being heard when he sent out messages on deaf ears. How was he to know that the chimp-in-office took advantage at a bad situation that occured very conveniently? It was about genocide and Brown did not, and most probably does not, believe the "on purposeness" of his ex-buddy-in-chief works. well, he got the kiss of death, now he must move on. Brownie, welcome to the I hate bush club. Now we got to worry about the next two bushs. I'm hoping chimp gets thrown in prison (gitmo? the vacation capital of the big house?) for all the murdering he has done.
Posted by sara swati at March 6, 2006 02:10 AM