‘Brownie’ on his way back to DC

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 officials who wouldn’t be identified told the AP that Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, La. He was the primary official overseeing the federal government’s response to the disaster. NBC learned the same thing from a relief official.

Was it that “Outstanding Political Science Professor” thing at a school he never taught at that pushed the Bush gang over the edge?

It appears Brown will be forced from his position soon, which is a benefit to the nation. But it’s interesting that it wasn’t his actual performance at FEMA that got Brown pulled from the scene — indeed, despite Brown’s incompetence, Bush said he’s done a “heck of a job” — but rather it was Brown lying about his background that apparently did him in.

The Bush gang, it seems, doesn’t mind if you’re ineffectual to the point of tragedy, but they do care if you lie on your resume. Good to know.

This Time article is horrendous. Apparently Brownie never did anything for anybody, ever, except as a student and a basement-level flunkie. Every single item in his resume was a fabrication. He ought to be indicted for fraud, along with the persons who hired him for incompetence and gross professional negligence.

  • Just read the Time article myself. Wow.

    So, just how many people in the Bush administration have similarly fabricated backgrounds? To think that the head of FEMA, especially after 9/11, was a such complete fraud is absolutely unbelieveable! I’m speechless.

  • “Yeah, don’t ya just love it!”

    I’m not sure I’d put it that way. The price tag for this liar’s being relieved is shaping up to be $150 billion and 10,000 lives.

    If I was feeling cynical, I’d say that Bush reasoned that Brown had wreaked all the havoc he could and it was time to send him somewhere where he might continue to display his talents. But I suppose one lesson is that every single person that Bush appoints needs a thorough inspection of his/her vita. How much you want to bet that these folks are racing to update (i.e., remove the blatant lies from) their resumes?

  • To think that the head of FEMA, especially after 9/11, was a such complete fraud is absolutely unbelieveable!

    Don’t forget Benie Kerik, the mobbed-up crooked cop they wanted to have run DHS. Fraud is standard procedure for this administration.

    Note to Carpetbagger: Brownie’s sin wasn’t lying on the resume; it was being caught lying on the resume. Even then, Bush can’t bring himself to fire this putz.

  • they can move him, but we are still paying his salary and the pressure will still be on to fire him.

    i think they have resisted dumping brownie because anyone they chose to replace him with would have to be competent – that is, someone they can’t control – who will then have to do a wholesale cleaning of FEMA management, and god knows what that will turn up.

    can i just say to all who are worrying about the repubs somehow turning all this around: they have no good options anymore and, really are only struggling to limit the damage. they’re doing a piss poor job at it too. much worse (for them), they do not control their own destiny. another bad storm response, a bomb or two on u.s. soil, an awful day in iraq and it is truly over for them.

    their main problem is that by running the party without allowing any internal policy dissent and independent thinkers, for five years, there is no one now who can step into a very severe leadership gap. their only hope is giuliani and that thin-skinned martinet is no hope at all.

  • Given the way Bush and his cohorts operate Brownie will probably get a promotion out of this.

  • Why doesn’t Time investigate Bush, Cheney
    et al? Why do the top guys, who are responsible
    for all the horrors of this administration,
    always get a pass?

  • Re: being fired for lies on his résumé rather than for being totally incompetent. I can sort of understand that. If the Bush administration started firing people for being incompetent, whole rafts of appointees would hit the door.

  • I just read the Time article, too, and the guy’s resume is basically fiction. I loved the comment from one of his bosses at a law firm who described him as “not very serious and somewhat shallow.” He’s Georgie’s soul mate!

    jimBOB is right – I don’t think these lies would have resulted in Brown’s being fired if the media hadn’t uncovered them. Either they didn’t bother to check when he was initially being considered for the job, or they did and they hired him anyway. Whichever the case, it’s criminal. And criminal is par for the course for these assholes. At least they’re consistent, though – incompetent liars from top to bottom.

    Excuse me, I need to throw up again.

    Shannon : o

  • I perceive an opportunity to dismantle the Bush Administration one fraudulant liar at a time, don’t you?

  • Remind me again, what’s definition of a stuffed shirt?

    From the Times article: “…recalls former city manager Bill Dashner. “…He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt.””

  • This is the first MBA president no less, we were supposed to be amazed at how efficiently a country could be run by some Jack Welch type. I really doubt Jack Welch ever hired any boobs to work at GE. And if he did, his loyalty was to GE, not to the schmuck who just made lightbulbs that explode in people’s faces.

  • Brown’s removal is just one of the lies that will come back to haunt Bush. Little know stories such as FEMA workers refusing to give evacuees water that was available will bring Grorge and his crew down.

  • I wonder if Brown was behind this interesting little ditty on the FEMA web site. It’s called the “FEMA for Kids Rap”.

    Brilliant.

    http://www.fema.gov/kids/femarap.htm

    Disaster . . . it can happen anywhere,
    But we’ve got a few tips, so you can be prepared
    For floods, tornadoes, or even a ‘quake,
    You’ve got to be ready – so your heart don’t break.

    Disaster prep is your responsibility
    And mitigation is important to our agency.

    People helping people is what we do
    And FEMA is there to help see you through
    When disaster strikes, we are at our best
    But we’re ready all the time, ’cause disasters don’t rest.

    Written and performed by Scott J. Wolfson

  • HEADLINE: Bush Administration Excels at Cronyism.

    Well, it’s not just Bush and Cheney and Allbaugh. It’s DeLay and Hassert and Lott and Stevens. In fact, Chris Shays and Jim Leach might be the only Republicans in all of Washington worth their salt.

  • Don’t worry about DHS and FEMA, EWM has learned that Chertoff has the answer…

    The Color of Chaos
    Beleaguered FEMA implements color codes to forestall future failures.

    EWM – (September 9, 2005) As part of a massive restructuring of the FEMA side of the Department of Homeland Security, Secretary Michael Chertoff is implementing a color-coded system to direct staff on protocols to be followed for a pending natural disaster. The move was made in concert with FEMA Director Michael Brown’s recall to Washington to “pursue other opportunities” after the agency’s botched response to Hurricane Katrina…

    The colors will be communicated to FEMA personnel via GPS-controlled mood rings and the threat status will not be announced to the public…

    http://www.eyewitnessmuse.com/musings.php?p=147

  • A lot of people are talking as if this is a great victory. It isn’t. Sure Brown was humiliated and the president was embarassed, but there has still been no accountability. This was no act of contrition.

    Thousands probably died because of FEMA’s ineptitude, but will Brown even be fired? Will there be any charges brought for falsifying his resume (if indeed it was him and not the White House that crafted it)? Will Bush be hounded by the Democrats and the news media until he fires the whole gaggle of political hacks he put in upper management positions at FEMA?
    Will the president be impeached for placing incompetent cronies in charge of the agency? Again, will there ultimately be any accountability? Don’t hold your breath.

    The Bush administration will continue to engage in behavior that amounts to criminal negligence, but they will never suffer any punishment, other than temporary embarassment and a spate of bad ratings in the polls.

  • Let’s not forget the fact that Lieberman had the responsibility to check this asshole out, and completely muffed that. Has ANYONE in the media cornered that schmuck and asked him WHY he didn’t check Brownie’s resume?

    Anyone…?

    Anyone…?

    George, give him another big wet kiss, because the Republicans can say that this “oversight” was “bipartisan”.

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