Not really. But he does a pretty good job of blaming everyone but himself for the ongoing crappiness of the Federal storm response. My first instinct is to say he needs to quit whining and own up to his failure. He should never have taken the position as head of FEMA, given his lack of experience, but who is going to say no to the President when he calls up with a job offer? Who is really culpable here, Michael Brown for taking the job or George W. Bush for offering it?
On the other hand, he is right that there is plenty of blame to spread around. There were screwups at every level of government. My problem with laying it all off on local and state officials is this: a combination of ongoing economic doldrums and tax-cut mania has almost bankrupted many local governments. They don’t have the resources to provide relief in the face of an overwhelming disaster. That’s where FEMA is supposed to come into the picture. Of course, FEMA’s funding has also been cut because of Bush’s tunnel vision “war on terror”.
Brown certainly didn’t improve his image by getting snippy with the House members who questioned him. He pretended not to be partisan when he praised the responses of Alabama and Mississippi and, of course, pointed out that they were governed by Republicans. He forgot to mention that Alabama only took a glancing blow (although, as I have pointed out here before, our Governor has done an excellent job with hurricane response) and that Mississippi didn’t have a major city underwater. He also played the “I’ve suffered more than you” card in an effort to deflect criticism.
Since almost all Democrats boycotted the hearings, the people he was alienating were Republicans, the very people who might have been willing to find another job for him if he had quietly fallen on his sword. I think he’d better concentrate on job opportunities in the private sector — preferably somewhere with no access to news coverage. And if he is, as rumored, the source for the National Enquirer’s front page story on Bush’s alleged fall from the wagon, he might want to change his identity and go into hiding.
Read a great comment somewhere on the 1st Lady’s upcoming ABC appearance on Extreme Makeover; they referred to W’s future appearance on “Extreme Hangover”!
I saw one that suggested the best reality show for W to grace with his presence would be “Intervention”.