FEMA Director Brown paid millions to Florida residents unaffected by '04

[Jon8503]

hurricanes to help Bush win majority of votes there:

September 11, 2005—Michael Brown, the embattled head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, approved payments in excess of $31 million in taxpayer money to thousands of Florida residents who were unaffected by Hurricane Frances and three other hurricanes last year in an effort to help President Bush win a majority of votes in that state during his reelection campaign, according to published reports.

"Some Homeland Security sources said FEMA's efforts to distribute funds quickly after Frances and three other hurricanes that hit the key political battleground state of Florida in a six-week period last fall were undertaken with a keen awareness of the looming presidential elections," according to a May 19 Washington Post story.

Homeland Security sources told the Post that after the hurricanes that Brown "and his allies him to succeed Tom Ridge as Homeland Security secretary because of their claim that he helped deliver Florida to President Bush by efficiently responding to the Florida hurricanes."

The South Florida Sun-Sentinel uncovered emails from Florida Gov. Jeb Bush that confirmed those allegations and directly implicated Brown as playing politics at the expense of hurricane victims.

"As the second hurricane in less than a month bore down on Florida last fall, a federal consultant predicted a 'huge mess' that could reflect poorly on President Bush and suggested that his re-election staff be brought in to minimize any political liability, records show," the Sentinel reported in a March 23 story.

http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/091105Leopold/091105leopold.html

[Loge23]

1. What ever happened to...?

...the money??
There was an initial storm of protest about this which prompted the govt to promise that any misallocated funds would be recovered.
What happened??
I live in one of the affected areas and I can tell you that there were a whole lot of pissed off people when this story first came out.
I bet not a dime of this was ever recovered. Blood money for bush.

[Divernan]

2. Note Brown had the chutzpah to try to become Director of DHS! !

This story has been posted for many days running, but I have not seen any comments picking up on the fact that Brown and his supporters tried to get Brown selected to succeed Chertoff!

I cannot imagine the level of disaster which would have resulted from putting that untrained, incompetent fool in what is the most powerful office in the land, next to the presidency! I abhor Chertoff, but he is an attack dog, not a lapdog like Brown.

Just goes to prove he's too stupid to realize how stupid he is. You can imagine the poor quality of political appointees he's foisted on the professionals at FEMA