Former FEMA Director Mike Brown’s testimony before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee is even more entertaining than expected. Brownie has been the administration’s scapegoat for months — and today he seems determined to turn the tables and place the blame for the Katrina fiasco on his former colleagues. (The WaPo is running a video stream of the hearing, as is C-SPAN Online, if you don’t have access to a TV.)
Michael Brown, the embattled former head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, testified before a Senate committee today that he told a top White House official on the day Hurricane Katrina struck that “our worst nightmares” had come true in New Orleans.
In an often tense exchange, Brown told the committee that he wasn’t exactly sure who he talked to from the White House staff that night, but said it was probably Deputy Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin, who he said was in Crawford, Tex., with President Bush.
Asked if he told the White House staffer specifically that the New Orleans levees had been breached, Brown said he couldn’t recall, but said he informed him that “everything we had planned about, worried about, was coming true.” He said that talking to Hagin was like “speaking to the president.”
Yesterday, the White House rejected Brown’s request to be included under Bush’s executive privilege. I wonder if the Bush gang regrets the decision now.
To hear Brown tell it, most of the administration’s responses to Katrina questions have been wrong. While WH officials have said that the levee breach caught them by surprise, Brown said their remarks are “baloney.” Homeland Security officials have said they weren’t informed about the storm’s impact, which Brown said is “disingenuous.”
In fact, Brown characterized DHS as the principal problem after the storm hit, leading Brown to try and go around the agency and get communicate directly with the White House. In response, White House Chief of Staff Andy Card told him not to stray from the bureaucratic path. “We’ve done a great job as Republicans of establishing more and more bureaucracy,” Brown told Sen. Susan Collins (R- Maine).
As Josh Marshall noted, Brown’s run-in with Norm Coleman was particularly noteworthy.
Sen. Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) accused Brown of poor leadership, saying strong leadership can often overcome bureaucratic problems.
“What do you want me to say,” Brown responded angrily. “I’ve admitted to mistakes. What do you want from me?”
Josh noted, “Coleman tried the standard hearings grandstanding against a disgraced or weakened witness — a tactic pretty much written into the DNA of every senator and rep. But Brown managed to get in Coleman’s face and turn the tables on him. At the end, Coleman actually used the fact that he had run out of time to run away from the encounter with Brown. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that happen before.”
Ultimately, Brown said he feels “abandoned” by an administration that hung him out to dry for the debacle. As for the president, Brown said, “Unfortunately, he called me ‘Brownie’ at the wrong time. Thanks a lot, sir.”