VeriSexy

WASHINGTON -- All week, George W. Bush has decried others for playing the "blame game" in the wake of the botched response to hurricane Katrina.

Yesterday, it was the U.S. President's turn to lay blame as he ousted his embattled top emergency management official and handed the job of directing relief efforts in the ravaged Gulf Coast to a veteran Coast Guard officer.

Michael Brown, 50, director of the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency, will keep his title, but he won't have anything to do with the massive relief effort on the ground.

A political appointee, Mr. Brown has come under fire for his mishandling of the hurricane rescue operation in the Gulf states, and also for what appear to be exaggerations in his résumé. After revelations yesterday, it seemed that Mr. Brown's only management experience has been as head of the International Arabian Horse Association, an organization of breeders that put on shows.

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His replacement is Thad Allen, Vice-Admiral of the U. S. Coast Guard, which has been praised for its quick deployment before the storm and for plucking thousands of survivors from rooftops.

Mr. Brown has faced a barrage of criticism since the hurricane hit -- for the slowness in getting aid to victims, for FEMA's plodding bureaucracy, for his lack of experience and for questions about the reliability of his résumé.

He also seemed hopelessly out of touch as the catastrophe unfolded, admitting in television interviews that he wasn't even aware that thousands of evacuees were desperately holed up in the New Orleans Convention Center.

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff refused yesterday to condemn Mr. Brown's work and he sidestepped questions about the FEMA director's credentials.

"Michael Brown has done everything he possibly could to co-ordinate the federal response to this unprecedented challenge," Mr. Chertoff told reporters in Baton Rouge, La., with Mr. Brown at his side.

He said the personnel shuffle would facilitate a "seamless response" to the hurricane and to ensure the government is ready for the next emergency.

But the move failed to appease many critics. In a letter to Mr. Bush, top Democratic senators accused Mr. Brown of poor judgment and for failing basic responsibilities.

"It is not enough to remove Mr. Brown from the disaster scene," the senators complained.

Republican Senator Trent Lott, whose own home in Pascagoula, Miss., was destroyed by the hurricane, said Mr. Brown has been "acting like a private, instead of a general."

Asked if he was being scapegoated for the problem-plagued relief efforts since the Aug. 31 hurricane, Mr. Brown told the Associated Press: "By the press, yes. By the President, no."

It is unclear how long Mr. Brown, who has headed FEMA since 2003, will stay in his job. He reportedly told his aides that he was thinking of leaving FEMA anyway.

But Mr. Brown vehemently denied he's been demoted.

"I'm going to go home and walk my dog and hug my wife and, maybe get a good Mexican meal and a stiff margarita and a full night's sleep," he told AP. "And then I'm going to go right back to FEMA and continue to do all I can to help these victims."

A week ago, Mr. Bush publicly praised Mr. Brown, a lawyer with little management experience, but extensive connections to prominent Republicans. "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," Mr. Bush said at the time.

But the pressure on Mr. Brown intensified yesterday after Time magazine reported in its on-line edition that Mr. Brown may have embellished his résumé by suggesting he was a political science professor at Oklahoma's Central State University and manager of emergency services division for the city of Edmond, Okla. Time says Mr. Brown was actually a part-time lecturer and a low-level bureaucrat with no management duties.

In recent days, the world has watched incredulously as the wealthiest and most powerful country in the world struggled mightily to cope with the aftermath of the hurricane. It now appears that hundreds of people may have died after the hurricane -- either from dehydration, drowning or lack of medical attention.

Federal, state and local officials have angrily blamed each other for the miscues and delays.

But it is FEMA, created in 1979 to co-ordinate the federal response to hurricanes and other disasters, which has taken the most heat. Critics complain FEMA, now spending nearly $1-billion (U.S.) on hurricane relief, is a second-rate agency, staffed by political hacks and ill-equipped to handle a catastrophe on the scale of Katrina.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...nal/TopStories

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Scootermuze

That in itself pretty well tells his story.. He could do nothing because he didn't know how.. so yes.. he did everything he possibly could....

VeriSexy

This is what happens when Bush appoints his under qualified friends to handle big jobs

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Scootermuze

All presidents do it, but they usually put them in positions where their lack on experience is of no real consequence..

This brain dead move of his is beyond belief...

RawAlex

Do you americans still think Bush was the right guy for the job?

I bet you are starting to wonder. It is the second term, so now you can't do shit about it.

Next time think before you climb onto the bandwagon, m'kay?

SHeesh!