This is in The Globe this morning:
The developments in New Orleans came against an increasingly stormy backdrop in Washington, where Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown was relieved of his command of the onsite relief efforts amid increasing criticism over the sluggishness of the agency's response and questions over his background. Asked if he was being made a scapegoat, Mr. Brown told The Associated Press: "By the press, yes. By the president, No."I didn't think he was getting the boot because of the hurricane but his track record:
- The [Boston] Herald reported last week that Brown was fired from his last private-sector job overseeing horse shows, and that he was tapped to join FEMA by an old college chum and Bush campaign manager, Joe Allbaugh.
- "His bio, the White House press release, and a number of sources list him as assistant city manager in Edmund, Okla.," Miranda says. " When we called the folks in Edmund, they told us that, no, his position in fact had been assistant to the city manager, which is a purely administrative job, a very different job. He was an administrative assistant. It's sort of an entry-level, intern-type job for somebody who's interested in learning about government. When he began that job in 1977, he was still a college student. He didn't graduate with his B.A. until 1978."
- Time also reported that Brown's profile on the legal Web site Findlaw.com, which is usually based on information provided by lawyers or their offices, said he was an "outstanding political science professor" at Central State University, now the University of Central Oklahoma. The school took issue with that assertion. "(Brown) wasn't a professor here, he was only a student here," school spokesman Charles Johnson told Time.
I think he's just getting the boot for being Mr. Fibber MacFibbfibb.
Comments
Jean - September 12, 2005 12:39 AM
It just doesn't get any bigger than getting fired on National TV before the entire country.
Philip - September 12, 2005 8:10 AM
Unfortunately, he didn't get fired. He only got pulled from the job in New Orleans, to return to Washington, so that Bush can try to "look good" by being a "responsible boss". But I'm sure you know that's a farce. He has attempted to avoid criticism of a poor job, both with the Katrina disaster (in more than one sense) and his whole presidency.
Brown was originally picked BECAUSE of his lack of experience. In DC, all you need to do is agree and support the president, and you're handed the keys to the country.
portland - September 12, 2005 3:13 PM
all that stuff is on my resume too except that i was the mayor in edmund. what's the big deal? and nobody talks about the guy's qualifications either; when a disaster strikes you need horses, arabian if you can get them.
Alan - September 12, 2005 4:18 PM
Triple A batteries - all he wanted to talk about were the triple A batteries.
Alan - March 1, 2006 9:11 PM
Now it seems Mr Brown may have said some clever things before events went sideways:<blockquote class="smalltext">then-Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown told the president and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff that he feared there weren’t enough disaster teams to help evacuees at the Superdome. "I’m concerned about . . . their ability to respond to a catastrophe within a catastrophe," Brown told his bosses the afternoon before Katrina made landfall. </blockquote>