The calls to fire FEMA Director Michael Brown—his full bureaucratic title is Under Secretary of Homeland Security for Emergency Preparedness & Response—have been escalating today. Much is being made of Brown’s thin credentials in emergency management. It would have been nice, of course, if Brown’s record had been scrutinized before he was handed the keys to FEMA, but when Brown faced Senate confirmation hearings in 2002 as FEMA’s deputy director, there was wide bipartisan support, and the then-Democratic controlled Senate approved Brown on a voice vote. (I cannot find any record of Brown’s Senate confirmation to his current position; there may not have been a second confirmation hearing.)
I’ve uploaded the transcript of Brown’s 2002 confirmation hearing transcript so everyone can make their own judgments. You can download the transcript at this link.
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I can’t find even a report of what the vote was on the nomination as under-secretary. Senate site seemingly has the vote on every other confirmation ever, but not his one. Does anyone know when and what the vote was?
The Homeland Security Act stated that anyone who was transferred over from another agency did not have to be re-confirmed by the Senate. Brown was previously confirmed as Deputy Director, so therefore didn’t need to be confirmed again. It is probably legitimate for the Senate to be less concerned about confirming a deputy director of FEMA than they would had the appointment been to the top position.
So if Republicans bear huge culpability in putting him in, and Democrats didn’t go to extraordinary measures to stop them (There are rarely major political battles about nominees to become deputy of anything), that means…
…Uh, it’s a wash?
And we can’t consider this a Republican failure of leadership?
Cute.
Let’s recognize that Republicans and Democrats play a charade in 20 year cycles. Each party tacitly allows the other party to win periodically and pretend to govern, in order to maintain an ineffective 2-party system.
In fact, the USA needs multiple parties to represent all citizens. The Constitution says NOTHING about parties, yet the Dems & Republicans have codified rigid 2-party systems in both houses of Congress in their anxiety to maintain 2-party hegemony.
Let’s boot them BOTH out of office in 2006 and bring in Green, Libertarian, Progressive and any other parties who can field credible candidates.
If you ask me, none of the persons listed below have been credible: Clinton (neither one), Gore, Cheney, GW Bush, Lieberman, Kerry, Ford, Nixon, Reagan, GHW Bush, Bentsen, etc., etc., etc.
What a bunch of political hacks without principles!! Get rid of ‘em all now and forever by voting only for REAL PEOPLE as candidates.
Each party has their own cronies.
To paraphase a British saying:
However, the ultimate resposibility for the hurricane Katrina debacle lies with Abraham Lincoln!
The point isn’t that democrats bear responsibility.
It’s that, given the voice vote confirmation in 2002, it is clear the democrats did NOT KNOW that he was “obviously” the wrong choice for the job.
Bush is responsible for his appointments, although the democrats have spent a lot of time assuring the nation that they would NEVER let an incompetent person get through their confirmation process with a “rubber stamp”.
But it is curious. Confirmed by a voice vote with virtually no opposition, promoted without any real democrat complaint, Brown also made it through last year’s hurricane season, one of the worst on record, without any major democrat suggesting he was incapable of doing his job — in fact he earned a bit of praise.
He continued this record this year through several hurricanes, without a single democrat complaining.
Then the worst natural disaster in our history hits (Katrina). Followed the next day by a canal wall failure in New Orleans (a disaster that even without the hurricane would have sunk New Orleans). And suddenly all the democrats are telling us how obvious it was to them that he was the wrong person, how stupid Bush was to appoint him.
And yet the time to response for the federal effort after Katrina seems to be better than ever (even if it is still too slow).
Just one example: After hurricane Andrew in 2002, it took 5 days to get the National Guard in strength into Homestead. After Katrina, it took 3 days to get them into New Orleans.
The fact that only 5 Congressmen showed up to Brown’s confirmation hearings is an outrage. But let’s be truly honest and admit that the public, of which we’re all a part, are complicit and endorse this kind of apathy. We really don’t care about who’s put in charge of key positions until after the body bags are filled or our gas prices go up. We also give a pass to the many other incompetents in government who screw all of us over in smaller, less lethal ways. It also makes it hard for me to listen to Democrats whine that his appointment was a reflection on the way the Bush Administration does business. Everyone went along with it because that’s the way it’s always done — on both sides of the aisle — and the American people have accepted this as S.O.P.
As for the point about his favorable reviews last year: Yes, there was an initially positive response to FEMA’s efforts after the busy hurricane season in Florida last year. First and foremost, let’s keep in mind that those were not dynamic situations for FEMA, and obviously not anywhere near the scale of Katrina which exposed the incompetence. FEMA’s role in Florida last year was a check-cutting operation. And why did people like the job FEMA did? Well, consider that last year was an election year. Consider the state. And then note that FEMA OVERPAID people and compensated hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people not even affected by those hurricanes — people they are now going after to seek refunds that they mistakenly gave out (many of which people did not even apply for).
Also consider this year when Brown sent a memo to Chertkoff the day the hurricane blew through with his initial request for relief staffing from various Homeland Security departments. But, as the memo noted, these rescuers and firefighters and medical personnel had to go through a 2-day training session, apparently so they could be better at public relations while they were on their emergency assignments.
I’m at a point where I honestly believe that the only way I can have respect for this guy would be if he put a gun to his head or was, at this moment, listening to a Joni Mitchell CD while running his Jaguar in his garage. That’s the way it would go down in many other cultures. Here you can expect that we’ll get the perverse reverse of that: Michael Brown will be presented to us as a victim of Katrina — the most injured one at that.
Just as a guest – I am visiting my grandchildren in Texas – and for those of you who like to check facts: The official record of the June 19, 2002 Senate confirmation hearing has been published as PDF document 81-311 and is available via U.S. Government Printing Office
Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov
Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800
The interesting part in it is the answer of Brown to this question on pg. 20:
Q.: “What do you believe in your background or employment experience qualifies you for this particular appointment?”
A.: “During my early career in municipal government, I was actively involved in emergency services at the state and local government level, including police, fire, public works and public safety.”
Brown clearly makes reference to his employment record (see pg. 18) where he claims:
1975-78 Assistant City Manager, Police, Fire & Emergency Services, Edmund Oklahama.
According to TIME magazine he was rather the “assistant to the city manager as a kind of intern” which is plausible as Brown was a student at this time.
Brown possibly committed perjury lying about this and possibly other employments as he (duly sworn) stated before the Notary Public Andrea Williams on April 30, 2002 (see pg. 23) that all his biographical information was current, accurate, and complete.
In addition, his FBI file had been reviewed by Senator Thompson and Senator Liebermann pursuant to Committee rules. It can only be assumed that
this file contains more liberties with the truth.
My view: Spinning is one of the things the Bush administration seems to be particularly good at and that is probably why he was chosen for this job by the President.
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