The Coalition of the Swilling

One really should note that the response to Katrina was the fastest in FEMA's history. Brown got fired because people expected FEMA to do something it had never been intended to do.

FEMA's performance was an "ineffectual, abysmal failure" in the same way that State Farm's performance was.

Except that FEMA actually gave people money.

"ineffectual, abysmal failure" in the same way that State Farm's performance was.

I hope you weren't expecting an argument. The only difference being that State Farm's is calculated and Michael Brown was an appointee plopped in a job that had the potential to be demanding, but what were the odds of that? And he was in over his head before the first levee started leaking.

(And, if you'll remember, I know all about FEMA. They did an incredible job despite their figurehead.)

They did an incredible job despite their figurehead.

kinda like the Yankees.

I agree that Brown was a political appointee with no previous experience appropriate to the job. But since the response got better on his watch I fail to see how he could be called a "figurehead" without showing how the improvement would have occurred without him.

As St Bernard officials are quick to point out, Brown was not fired. He resigned. His image rehabilitation has been remarkable. I think he's a dolt but he's a much more experienced dolt now. Truth be told, he may be effective as an advocate navigating the red tape he's intimately familiar with and he may get in a few shots at his detractors in the administration and congress at the same time. I don't think St Bernard wants a competent consultant. I think they want a bulldog.

Rob, at that level of management, no one is ever "fired". But he did resign under pressure, which is really the same thing.

But the fact that he has been hired after being pilloried as he was suggests, to me at least, that he is nowhere near as incompetent as people made him out to be. And apparently, some people recognize that and are willing to pony up.

Either that, or he's the greatest salesman in history.

Dolt. Good one. And imagine buffing is always easier when you've got big, wounded, puppy dog eyes.

He's had about 7 months of intense schooling since then, Ken. That's almost a school year. The August Brownie and the April Brownie are different creatures. At least in the area of expertise, savvy, cronyism, or whatever it is that St Bernard wants him for.

But irrespective of his performance at FEMA, picking up that kind of marketable expertise in only seven months belies the term "dolt". I'm just not seeing anything that suggests he is such.

Didn't make myself as clear as I could have. He's a dolt at emergency management in my opinion, Ken. Admittedly, my level of confidence in any level of government in an emergency has taken a big hit. Some of the things that came out of the mouths of public officials were idiotic. Brown may very well be brilliant in other areas and he may have learned a lot of lessons since Katrina but I don't want him managing any emergencies other than his own and I don't think St Bernard is hiring him to handle theirs, just the resistance they're encountering at every turn. By the way, St Bernard is 5 minutes from where I type, is chomping at the bit to start reconstruction, and is being held up almost entirely by FEMA. People with means have started but people that need financing have to wait on the still unreleased flood maps.

But Rob, the issue remains. Whether Brown should be in charge of rescuing people is not at issue. It's whether he did what FEMA was intended to do: provide emergency recovery after the fact, not whether they rescued people. Everything I've seen says that he did, and faster than any previous hurricane ever.

Is he qualified to provide emergency rescue services? No (at least, not on paper). Is he qualified to provide emergency response after, as FEMA is supposed to do? I'd have to say yes, especially if, as you say, FEMA is not now doing so since he left.

The issue, for me, is whether he should be managing emergencies. Not mine, thankyouverymuch. That's what he and his agency were supposed to do. Emergency Management, the EM in FEMA, says it all. That some politico(s) decided that Emergency Management entails some things but not others sounds a little too much like Freddie Prinze saying, "It's not my job".

But they did everything they were supposed to do.

Feds can never mobilize fast enough to do what people seem to think they should have been doing. That's for the locals. Remember how many places (not just New Orleans) that FEMA would have had to be if their mission was to do what you seem to be saying they should. I don't think any of us wants or can afford for a bureaucracy that large.

And remember that only NO had the problems of government/police/services breakdowns that were such big news. That is not FEMA's fault; other places weathered the worst without complete disorder.

"Feds can never mobilize fast enough to do what people seem to think they should have been doing. That's for the locals."

They were much better mobilized and prepared for Rita and Wilma, Ken. They could have done much better for Katrina.