A new FEMA head has been announced: R. David Paulison.
No surprise. No great loss, either, methinks.
I’m not sure if the Dem’s will be happy or sad about this, since they lose their chief political target with his resignation and will now be forced, if they’re even half honest, which has yet to be proven, to sheepishly recognize the failures of those who were really directly responsible for the aftermath: Democratic Governor Blanco of Louisiana, and the liberal mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin.
Previously, Democrats had extremely intelligent commentary on the subject, to wit:
WASHINGTON — He’s been called an idiot, an incompetent and worse. The vilification of federal disaster chief Michael Brown, emerging as chief scapegoat for whatever went wrong in the government’s response to Hurricane Katrina, has ratcheted into the stratosphere. Democratic members of Congress are taking numbers to call for his head.
“I would never have appointed such a person,” said New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton.
“Let’s bring in someone who is a professional,” urged Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md.
A more visceral indictment came from closer to the calamity. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish near New Orleans, said the bureaucracy “has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area.”
“Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot,” he told CBS. “Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don’t give me the same idiot.”
…Ad nauseam. Charming.
But perspective is everything.
“There is nothing more powerful than the urge to blame,” said Eric Dezenhall, a crisis-management consultant who helps corporate leaders and other prominent figures try to repair tattered images. “It happens every time. It is a deeply embedded archetype in the human mind.”
He said the Brown episode is playing out in classic fashion.
“You can follow the steps,” he said. “First, outrage. Second, the headline: ‘What went wrong?’ Third, the telltale memo that supposedly suggests somebody knew and did nothing. I just don’t find this to be unique at all.”
Oh and smug Canadian, let’s remind ourselves of the fact that the head of FEMA is vetted by congress (remember, we’re talking about a country, the United States, that has actual democracy) and he was approved unanimously—by Democrats and Republicans alike, as a great candidate for the job.
Indeed, Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, who led those hearings, called Brown’s long-ago stint as assistant city manager in Edmond, Okla., a “particularly useful experience” because he had responsibility for local emergency services.
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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