As everyone no doubt heard last week, FEMA held a press conference on Tuesday about the agency’s response to the wildfires in Southern California. Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson, the deputy administrator of FEMA, fielded one softball question after another, not because the reporters were lazy, but because the questions didn’t come from reporters at all — FEMA’s “press” conference featured questions from FEMA employees pretending to be journalists.
On Friday, this caused quite a stir, with even the White House criticizing the agency’s handling of the matter, and FEMA issuing a formal apology on Friday afternoon.
Over the weekend, though, the controversy took an unexpected turn when John “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s director of external affairs and one of the fake reporters asking questions at the press conference, announced he was stepping down from his position. It was a startling surprise — a Bush administration official quitting after getting caught screwing up? That’s not the Bush m.o. at all.
But the White House was anxious to make it seem that way. FEMA Director David Paulison told CNN that Philbin’s exit was an example of “disciplinary action.”
It wasn’t. As it turned out, Philbin was already headed out — and actually moving up the administration’s ladder.
Philbin’s last scheduled day at FEMA was Thursday. He has been named as the new head of public affairs at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, ODNI spokeswoman Vanee Vines said.
That’s more like it. Stage a fraudulent press conference, get a promotion. He wasn’t thrown under the bus for screwing up; he was already on his way to a new bus when the story broke. There was no “disciplinary action.”
For what it’s worth, as of this afternoon, even the Bush administration realized this doesn’t look good.
The director of national intelligence is weighing whether to hire the federal official who organized a fake Federal Emergency Management Agency news conference.
John P. “Pat” Philbin, FEMA’s external affairs director, on Monday was supposed to take over the public information shop at the Office of National Intelligence Director headed by Mike McConnell. But that was put on hold so McConnell could review Philbin’s record, according to DNI spokesman Ross Feinstein.
Given McConnell’s background, I suspect the “review” is perfunctory, and that Philbin will get the promotion anyway, but it’s nice to see them going through the motions.
Update: Well, what do you know. Apparently, Philbin won’t get that promotion after all.
The man who staged a fake Federal Emergency Management Agency news conference has lost a chance to be National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell’s top public information officer. […]
“We do not normally comment on personnel matters,” DNI spokesman Ross Feinstein said Monday. “However, we can confirm that Mr. Philbin is not, nor is he scheduled to be, the director of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.”
A pleasant surprise.