Back off Brown!

I suspect that sooner or later the Media will discover that New Orleans did have a written emergency plan to cover the evacuation of the poor, but that the Mayor of New Orleans ignored it, and allowed hundreds of evacuation buses to be ruined by the flood. City leaders had at least two full days to use these buses to evacuate the poor, exactly as their own emergency management plan called for, but they failed to act.

The Red Cross was reportedly ready to deliver food, water and other supplies to flood-ravaged refugees who were sweltering inside New Orleans' Superdome last week - but the relief was blocked by bureaucrats who worked for Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. Furthermore, can you imagine how it would have been perceived if the President of the United States, of one party, had pre-emptively taken from the female governor, of another party, the command and control of her forces?

When Michael Brown faced Senate confirmation hearings in 2002 as FEMA's deputy director, there was wide bipartisan support, and the then-Democratic controlled Senate approved Brown on a voice vote. Since his confirmation, Under Secretary Brown has led Homeland Security’s response to more than 164 presidentially declared disasters and emergencies, including the 2003 Columbia Shuttle disaster and the California wildfires in 2003. In 2004, Mr. Brown led FEMA’s thousands of dedicated disaster workers during the most active hurricane season in over 100 years, as FEMA delivered aid more quickly and more efficiently than ever before. Previously, Brown served as FEMA's Deputy Director and that agency's General Counsel. Shortly after the September 11th terrorist attacks, Brown served on the President's Consequence Management Principal's Committee, which acted as the White House's policy coordination group for the federal domestic response to the attacks.

If, as the President’s critics contend, that Brown’s resume prior to his service in FEMA was inadequate, then why didn’t Congress or the Media protest his appointment or his record over the past 164 disasters, prior to New Orleans? Let’s also remember that in Mississippi where the devastation has been equally as bad, there’s been no similar calls for (any) FEMA heads-on-a-platter. With regard to problems in Louisiana, it smells like politics to me. As to the polls, I’ll be content to wait for the various investigations to tell everyone who really was to blame.