A top aide to a Republican senator told Slate’s John Dickerson the other day that there are two primary tasks at hand in addressing the disaster on the Gulf Coast: “writing and figuring out who gets fired.” As for the second part, all signs are pointing to FEMA’s Mike Brown.
In truth, Brown’s position has already been largely usurped. Vice Adm. Thad Allen, the Coast Guard’s chief of staff, was assigned to be Brown’s deputy and to “take over operational control” of the recovery efforts.
Nevertheless, if Brown hasn’t updated his resume lately, it’s probably time he start. His admission on CNN last Thursday that he had no idea that the New Orleans Convention Center was a hurricane shelter got the ball rolling, but it’s been downhill ever since.
Among those calling for his resignation — and, really, this is just a sampling — are the New Orleans Times-Picayune, Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.), the New York Times, CNN’s John Cafferty, and a whole bunch of Democratic House members.
How likely is this? Though Bush usually promotes those who screw up, Brown seems to be genuinely in trouble. At the Tuesday morning press gaggle, Scott McClellan was asked whether Bush would fire Brown, but McClellan wouldn’t answer the question directly. Then, helping make the writing on the wall clear, someone in the know leaked word to the press that FEMA (Brown) bungled the request to the Department of Homeland Security at the height of the crisis.
The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region — and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.
Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Mike Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to “convey a positive image” about the government’s response for victims. Before then, FEMA had positioned smaller rescue and communications teams across the Gulf Coast. But officials acknowledged Tuesday the first department-wide appeal for help came only as the storm raged.
Brown’s memo to Chertoff described Katrina as “this near catastrophic event” but otherwise lacked any urgent language. The memo politely ended, “Thank you for your consideration in helping us to meet our responsibilities.”
The very fact that the AP has this memo helps show that Brown’s future with the administration is very limited.
I think the argument for Brown’s defenders, at this point, is that it’s irresponsible to fire FEMA’s chief during the relief operation and with several weeks of hurricane season left to go. But the truth is the opposite — Brown needs to go because so much work still needs to be done. With this crisis still underway and untold challenges ahead, the obvious need is to have a reliable, experienced, and competent official in charge of FEMA immediately. “Brownie,” as the president affectionately calls Brown, is unfortunately not that person.
So, if Brown goes, who’s waiting in the wings?
If Bush were to fire FEMA director Mike Brown the agency would be run by the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff. (See the FEMA organizational chart).
The Chief of Staff is a guy named Patrick Rhode. He planned events for President Bush’s campaign. Rhode has no emergency management experience whatsoever. […]
The Deputy Chief of Staff is Scott Morris. He was a press flak for Bush’s presidential campaign. Previously, he worked for the company that produced Bush’s campaign commercials. He also has no emergency management experience.
Is it safe to assume that Bush will have to bring in someone from outside the agency?