Michael Brown

[pecunium]

Michael Brown seems deserving of an apology.

Yes, he made some mistakes during Katrina (the can I go home now, and, I need more time to eat e-mails certainly show that) but it seems he was sincerely trying to fix things before that. He knew FEMA was broken and he was trying to fix it (ineffectually, to be sure, but it may be no one could have fixed the mess the Administration made of FEMA).

More importantly, he is still trying to fix it. It may be that he is trying to avoid a life spent ignominiously as a joke. It may be anger; a desire for revenge on those who hung him out to dry.

But the transcripts, the videotapes and the actual work he did (the Mitre Report he commissioned, showing the failings FEMA had, and probably still has), all show that he saw the problems (both instrinsic, and likely to happen in the event of a disaster like Katrina) and wanted to prevent them.

Does it absolve him? Maybe. It may be, as I said above, that no one would have been allowed to fix it. It may be that even Brown had been listened to, and the changes he'd have liked to see been implelented it would have been too late for New Orleans. It may be that even if he'd tried, he wasn't up to the task.

But his stepping up now, that says something about his character, he could have just slunk away, let it go, taken on the role of goat, which the administration was fostering, and we, the public, were willing to accept (even those of use who think the blame goes all the way to the top, were more than willing to pile on and place the primary blame on Brown), but he didn't. Knowing full-well the sort of abuse he could expect he has stepped up to show the emperors lack of clothes.

He seems to have tried before hand. He seems to be willing to accept the blame for his failures, and he is also willing to take the heat which will come from showing where he was failed by his leaders.

Mr. Brown, I apologise.

Godspeed and good luck.

Comments

[jmhm.livejournal.com]

Only he played ball and protected his job while people died, which is a bit of a sticking point for me.

[faithhopetricks.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he seems to have been lifted a few rungs in hell....I think he got shoved out there as the Administration's Judah-goat to be sacrificed, and now he's saying, well, it wasn't just me. I am glad to see that's getting a bit of attention, even if I still do think he shouldn't ever have been appointed to head FEMA and seriously screwed up during Katrina.

[ammitbeast.livejournal.com]

We don't yet know the extent of Brown's responsibility for any part of the Katrina emergency response fiasco. However, he has in large part shown where most of the problems occurred, and for that, he should be thanked. What we've now seen shows that, even if he wasn't the best person for the position, he was at least trying to do his job under conditions that would have been difficult for the best qualified job candidate.

I think there's been a bad image surrounding Brown that the administration helped to foster. Add to this that he's not a terribly likable person... though of course that should not help to indict him, regardless (sad that this is often the case).

[greystroke.livejournal.com]

I heard bits of his 'briefing' to POTUS from the archive videos the other day and thought he sounded like he was fairly well informed (suprisingly). Then Joshua Micah Marshall made these logs in TPM ... http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007804.php

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I don't think he deserves a by, he certainly deserved to be cashiered (and the letter he wrote to another blogger, where he says he ought to have quit, when he saw he wasn't going to be able to fix things... if he'd made a public resignation on principle, as an act of protest [which David Hackworth, back in (IIRC) '80 said ought to be happening more often, after the Beireut bombing of the Marine Barracks, which was when I first read anything of his, ought to be happening more often in the military, which I can't agree with more] he'd be clearly with the good guys) but I don't know what he was doing to try and fix things.

I think he was out of his depth, and ought not have been there. I think there were things he might have done to make things better.

I don't know what obstacles his superiors were putting in his way, I don't know what institutional hurdles he was trying to jump.

So, right now, I will cut him some slack, and suspend judgement pending more information.

TK

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I would be willing to give him more of a pass except for one huge glaring problem. Three days in to the Katrina crisis, he played stupid and said that he didn't even know that there were people in the Superdome, a statement so stunningly stupid that even the reporters were muttering "you haven't paid attention to the news?" And these tapes prove that he knew there were people in the Superdome and that those people were in terrible trouble.

I can't reconcile that. Nor can I reconcile his knowing that he and FEMA were overwhelmed and yet he blocked the Red Cross from coming into the city.

People died because of that. No matter how concerned he was on those tapes, he is still guilty of hundreds of counts of manslaughter by neglect at *best.*

[lawgeekgurl.livejournal.com]

let's not forget about the time he managed to find to get some prime contracts to his big business connections while he was supposedly assessing the situation on the coast.

I'm sorry, his martyr act and his inaction just prior to and after the hurricane hit are unforgivable.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I would be willing to give him more of a pass except for one huge glaring problem. Three days in to the Katrina crisis, he played stupid and said that he didn't even know that there were people in the Superdome...

You know what, strange as it sounds, I am willing to believe that's possible. It's damning of other things, but I can believe it.

I've been in crises like this and there are lots of things which those outside of dealing with things might know about which those inside can miss.

If it's true, then lots of people below him were failing in their jobs, and massively (that's the damning I was talking about).

I also don't know that he personally made the policy which kept out the Red Cross, nor that he knew of it (see above).

Should he have had CNN, and a slew of other news channels, and outlets running in the area he was in? Yes. Not keeping on top of that sort of thing is a failing, and one which gets him black marks from me.

I don't think his coming forward now absolves him of all things. I don't think he deserves a blanket forgiveness, but he gets some slack for standing up.

Should he have done it without the scapegoating the Bushies have been inflicting on him? Yes. That he lacks that sort of courage is no credit to him. But we've scorned that sort of courage, and some the blame for his being so much as the rest of the nation accepts isn't all his fault either.

Part of it may just be that his apparent sincerity has humanised him, and I'm a softy, but part of it is that he seems to be both genuine, and less culpable than I was holding him.

Silly me, I was spanking sergeants, and letting the colonels off the hook.

TK

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nymphette_/]

my thoughts always go back to one thing with Katrina:

IF the Mayor of New Orleans and the Gov. of LA had done *their* jobs in evacating the city... would the planned federal response still have been considered insuffiencent?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Yes.

TK

[batosai.livejournal.com]

i agree.
i saw him on the news on sunday and i got the same feeling about him.
i do not consider him completely in the clear, buyt i am more understanding of his position. and i liked his comment about the e-mails in question. He compared them to a brain surgeon commenting to his fellow doctor during the surgery about his golf game. it is often something we do to lessen the tension of the time. i think his comments about finding soemone to feed his dog and such are overly focused on.