Compounded Tragedy

What compounds the tragedy of Hurricance Katrina is the unforgiveable federal response -- a response so bad it cost people their lives. Yes, local and state officials could have done better planning beforehand. But that is a pretty complicated issue. Whether the federal response was adequate is a lot simpler. It wasn't.

So why blame President Bush? Because this is the most political administration in history. How capable you are doesn't matter. What matters is that you are a political crony of Bush and Rove, Inc. That's why Michael Brown ended up leading FEMA, which the Bush Administration reduced from Cabinet-level status and made it part of the Department of Homeland Security. Brown's qualifications? He spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association. The Boston Herald reports that Brown was asked to resign from the job after a series of lawsuits alleging supervision failures.

While this reads like a Saturday Night Live skit, the consequences could not be more profound. This jackass cost lives. And who's responsible? Bush. Past presidents rewarded political activists but not by appointing incompetent ones to critical jobs like leading FEMA. Presidential historian Robert Dallek tells USA Today that Bush's shortcomings include "surrounding himself with men based not on their expertise but on rewarding political associates." Then again, if Bush had to rise through life on his qualifications and not on his father's name, he would have never amounted to anything.

In my mind, appointing inexperienced political hacks to run FEMA is an impeachable offense. But it's not something new for this president. The Coalition Provisional Authority created to run Iraq after the mission was "accomplished" was stocked with similar GOP activists. Gee, could that have been partly why rebuilding the country and the post-war period was such a disaster? These guys are more concerned with "image" than results. Note that Brown's memo after the hurricane hit mentions how the response could help the agency's image.

And, could it be that the only reason the response to September 11th was as good as it was comes down to two words -- Rudy Giuliani? A man who may be an ass at times, but also a man who can lead, who takes charge, takes responsibility and knew federal officials would be of little help, including the President.