Holy Cripes! Vindication for Brownie?

[Robert Murphy]

God, I never thought I would be writing this post, and from a pure a PR perspective Mr. Brown (formerly of FEMA) still did not exactly cover himself with glory during Congressional hearings, but...

Having seen the recently released AP video... Well, this guy was NOT the totally bumbling incompetent painted by the media (with loads and loads of help from the W. Admin.), and yes, he was sold down the damned river by W. I sympathize with him; it seems he did do his best, that he not only grasped the gravity of the impending Katrina disaster, he truly tried to get it through the thick skulls of his superiors, to no avail. Then they threw him as sacrificial lamb to the media. Revolting!

Robert

[Brundle_Fly]

1. the power of the media

to shape any message is amazing, even here in our highly tuned media watchdog stance, they can get away with shaping and controlling out thoughts and outlook on pretty much anything.

We must be more diligent.

[tridim]

2. Nope, if Brownie had any integrity he would have never

accepted the job in the first place. He was wholly unqualified.

His recent PR tour is just that, a PR tour exclusively for his own benefit. He's a schmuck, and his incompetence killed lots of people on the gulf coast.

[KoKo]

3. He was on Tweety last night praising Bush as a great President...and

falling all over himself about what he did and didn't do. I don't think he's changed....he's just doing lots of butt covering and finger pointing at Blanco and Nagen.

[calmblueocean]

4. The fact remains: Brownie was still incompetent.

He's a perfect example of why FEMA needs to be staffed by individuals *trained in disaster management* and not just by cronies. I'm sure Brownie did try, but good intentions aren't good enough. Had be been trained in the field instead of merely winging it, he would've had both the experience and the self-confidence to save much of the death, suffering, and anguish that Katrina left in its wake.

[spindrifter]

5. This is Brownie's PR push

to improve his own image. As others above have pointed out, he was in over his level of competence and people died. What's with the great praise for the Prezidnit? The spin will go all over the field, but bottom line is this administration f*'d up and people died. This administration f*'d up and they still haven't done an appreciable amount to reconstruct our Gulf coast communities.

[tulsakatz]

6. Maher interviewed him last night....

I have to say, I certainly have a much better opinion of him!!

The tapes gave him a more competent image than we had 6 months ago.

[Armstead]

7. Life isn't always Either/Or

We often look for villans, scapegoats and heroes.

Alas, we tend to lose sight of the fact that most people are three-dimensional and a mixture of traits and qualities.

Brownie ws pushed into a role as strawman scapegoat in a way that assisted both the administration and its critics. The White House could point to him as the cause of the screw-ups and his firing as their "lessons learned." Those on the otehr side could point to Brown as a classic example of the cronyism and incompetence of the whole administrtion.

Lost in there was the fact that Brown was basically a guy who was trying to do an impossible job, and didn't succeed.

My impression is that Brownie was over his head, and he seems like a pain in the ass in some ways. He is no James Witt. But he did manage sucessful diaster relief in the past, and I assume he was trying to do the very best that he could in this situation.

He also was correct about the idiocy of putting so many different eggs into the basket of Homeland Security. You can't have one Super-Agency handling everything from Immigration to Hurricane Relief.

So Brownie probably deserves a C for his performance.

[originalpckelly]

8. I agree...

It is weird to say, but I feel sorry for Michael Brown. This was such a serious slap to the American people, hopefully we will wakeup one day, and realize that Katrina didn't just Dems but also Repubs.

[PassingFair]

9. I think he did his best.

AND I think he fell on his sword like a good soldier.

Off with his head! He is another "ends justify the means" republican that is
ruining the world an inch at a time.

[gratuitous]

13. The most damning thing you could say: He did his best

And I think it's true in this case. Is Brown suddenly competent? No, he is not. Should Brown, have been in that position at all? No, he should not have been. Would it have been a helluva lot better if he'd spoken out at the time, when it could have saved some lives? Why yes, yes it would have been better. Did he speak out? No. No, he did not.

Brown is not suddenly a great or even a good man. He's trying to sell a book or a buy a new reputation.

[Road Scholar]

10. This administration has no place for competence. Face it, ol'

Brownie was trying to do his job. A total fucking misfit.

[Retrograde]

11. what about those emails?

The ones circulated last October or thereabouts that indicated that Brownie was more concerned with having a nice, uninterrupted meal than with being on the ground in New Orleans. And what about all the reports of FEMA not allowing volunteers in the devastated areas, and of basically getting in the way of people trying to do their jobs?

No, he is not vindicated in my book. I'm sure he's spent the last few months being coached in how to present himself.

Remember: just because Bush and Chertoff are culpable doesn't mean that Brown is innocent. There's plenty of blame and responsibility for everyone.

[emulatorloo]

12. Karl Rove would never stoop to making up emails

or quoting anyone out of context in order to protect President Bush.

Or would he?










(brown isn't innocent -- but watch the AP tapes if you get a chance -- he is trying to tell them, they aren't listening. I was totally shocked by them. He has been saying recently that Chertoff wouldnt let him do his job, and kept trying to isolate him from the people in the field, FWIW)

ON EDIT: AP tapes linked here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x551586

[SoCalDemocrat]

14. Think again

The guy has done nothing but lie out of every orifice available to him in an ongoing media campaign to cover his butt and try and restore some of his reputation. I saw him on Tweety's show last week, it was disgusting. They took turns bashing the Mayor and blaming him for the disaster.

Brown lied about almost everything. He claimed his people were in the Superdome shortly after the incident, when in fact it was on his order that the relief workers pulled out of the area and stopped delivery of supplies and running busses to transport people away from the disaster area. Brown had listened to the myths about black men raping teenage white girls, shooting murders, etc. and ordered people out.

[Robert Murphy]

15. This Just In From TPM

"Following up on yesterday's post about Michael "Brownie" Brown, former head of FEMA, I've been getting emails from folks on the inside at FEMA, people who worked with him and observed him firsthand when he was leading the agency.

The verdict seems pretty clear: None of them thought he was qualified for the position. But each also had the clear impression that he took his job seriously, learned a lot while he was there and -- perhaps most importantly -- was a big improvement over Joe Allbaugh, President Bush's fixer whom he succeeded as head of the agency.

If there's an online reevaluation of the guy, the new view seems one shared by those who were there as the story unfolded."


-- Josh Marshall

[NNadir]

16. Come on. The guy was worrying about whether he was a fashion god.

He fucking sold himself down the river when he joined in incompetent administration to serve in a capacity for which he was not qualified.

His job was a life and death matter, and if he was in over his head, he should have resigned, period, before he watched the bodies floating on the television news.

Fuck him.