Despite rumors to the contrary, FEMA Director Mike Brown hasn’t been fired (yet), but he’s been relieved of his duties overseeing relief work on the Gulf Coast. Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, NBC News and The Associated Press reported Friday. Two federal […]
Over the last week or so, the right has targeted a series of people and institutions for Katrina-related criticism, but leave it to Rick Santorum to go after the National Weather Service (via Capitol Buzz). U.S. Senator Rick Santorum is suggesting that early mistakes in predicting the path of Hurricane Katrina may be a symptom […]
During their fifth years in the White House, Nixon was caught up in Watergate and LBJ was suffering politically due to Vietnam. And yet, neither saw their approval ratings drop below 42% by the summer of their fifth year in office. Something to consider while reviewing the latest numbers from polls released over the last […]
There are, of course, two sides to the debacle that led Mike Brown to become the director of FEMA. One was the president deciding to nominate him and the other was the Senate — which had a Dem majority at the time — going along with the idea. As it turns out, the Committee on […]
When the White House announced shortly after last year’s election that privatizing Social Security would be the president’s top domestic priority, Bush aides really weren’t kidding. “[White House spokesman Trent] Duffy asserted that the vast spending that would be required to address the hurricane’s impact adds to the need to change Social Security, which threatens […]
Today’s installment of campaign-related news items that wouldn’t generate a post of their own, but may be of interest to political observers: * Stephen Laffey, the outspoken mayor of Rhode Island’s second-largest city, made it official yesterday, announcing that he will challenge fellow Republican Sen. Lincoln Chafee in a Republican Senate primary next year. * […]
It was offensive from the outset when Rumsfeld’s Defense Department created the “America Supports You Freedom Walk” to exploit 9/11. It added insult to injury when those who wished to participate in the government-sponsored “Freedom Walk” on public property were told they had to endure Pentagon “screening.” On a fundamental level, it doesn’t make sense […]
The 2003 vote on $87 billion for the war in Iraq was probably the most talked-about vote of Bush’s first term. The fact that John Kerry and John Edwards voted against giving the White House another blank check for the war became an albatross around their respective necks — and fodder for countless Bush-Cheney speeches, […]
Paul Krugman makes a compelling case this morning that the administration’s failures with Katrina are reminiscent of another, equally tragic failure in Iraq. I think he might have missed one. In Iraq, the administration displayed a combination of paralysis and denial after the fall of Baghdad, as uncontrolled looting destroyed much of Iraq’s infrastructure. The […]
At first blush, the idea that lawmakers would be restricted in offering amendments to yesterday’s $52 billion supplemental spending bill for Katrina relief and rebuilding efforts is not necessarily awful. In general, amendments can serve to make a bill better, but in this case, a reasonable argument could be made that no one wanted to […]