Mike Brown Who?

Dateline - September 2, 2005 (4 days after hurricane Katrina smashes into the Gulf Coast):

(White House) 10:35 A.M. CDT

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first I want to say a few things. I am incredibly proud of our Coast Guard. We have got courageous people risking their lives to save life. And I want to thank the commanders and I want to thank the troops over there for representing the best of America.

I want to congratulate the governors for being leaders. You didn't ask for this, when you swore in, but you're doing a heck of a job. And the federal government's job is big, and it's massive, and we're going to do it. Where it's not working right, we're going to make it right. Where it is working right, we're going to duplicate it elsewhere. We have a responsibility, at the federal level, to help save life, and that's the primary focus right now. Every life is precious, and so we're going to spend a lot of time saving lives, whether it be in New Orleans or on the coast of Mississippi.

We have a responsibility to help clean up this mess, and I want to thank the Congress for acting as quickly as you did. Step one is to appropriate $10.5 billion. But I've got to warn everybody, that's just the beginning. That's a small down payment for the cost of this effort. But to help the good folks here, we need to do it.

We are going to restore order in the city of New Orleans, and we're going to help supplement the efforts of the Mississippi Guard and others to restore order in parts of Mississippi. And I want to thank you for your strong statement of zero tolerance. The people of this country expect there to be law and order, and we're going to work hard to get it. In order to make sure there's less violence, we've got to get food to people. And that's a primary mission, is to get food to people. And there's a lot of food moving. And now the -- it's one thing to get it moving to a station, it's the next thing to get it in the hands of the people, and that's where we're going to spend a lot of time focusing.

We've got a lot of rebuilding to do. First, we're going to save lives and stabilize the situation. And then we're going to help these communities rebuild. The good news is -- and it's hard for some to see it now -- that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott's house -- he's lost his entire house -- there's going to be a fantastic house. And I'm looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)

GOVERNOR RILEY: He'll be glad to have you.

THE PRESIDENT: Out of New Orleans is going to come that great city again. That's what's going to happen. But now we're in the darkest days, and so we got a lot of work to do. And I'm down here to thank people. I'm down here to comfort people. I'm down here to let people know that we're going to work with the states and the local folks with a strategy to get this thing solved.

Now, I also want to say something about the compassion of the people of Alabama and Mississippi and Louisiana and surrounding states. I want to thank you for your compassion. Now is the time to love a neighbor like you'd like to be loved yourselves.

Governor Riley announced the fact that they're going to open up homes in military bases for stranded folks. And that's going to be very important and helpful.

My dad and Bill Clinton are going to raise money for governors' funds. The governors of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama will have monies available to them to help deal with the long-term consequences of this storm.

The faith-based groups and the community-based groups throughout this part of the world, and the country for that matter, are responding. If you want to help, give cash money to the Red Cross and the Salvation Army. That's where the first help will come. There's going to be plenty of opportunities to help later on, but right now the immediate concern is to save lives and get food and medicine to people so we can stabilize the situation.

Again, I want to thank you all for -- and, Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job. The FEMA Director is working 24 -- (applause) -- they're working 24 hours a day.

Again, my attitude is, if it's not going exactly right, we're going to make it go exactly right. If there's problems, we're going to address the problems. And that's what I've come down to assure people of. And again, I want to thank everybody.

And I'm not looking forward to this trip. I got a feel for it when I flew over before. It -- for those who have not -- trying to conceive what we're talking about, it's as if the entire Gulf Coast were obliterated by a -- the worst kind of weapon you can imagine. And now we're going to go try to comfort people in that part of the world.

Thank you. (Applause.)

END 10:39 A.M. CDT

Dateline - September 9, 2005 (1 week later):

(Bloomberg) Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, was removed from on-scene management of the Hurricane Katrina recovery effort after lawmakers criticized his performance and qualifications.

Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, named Thad Allen, a Coast Guard admiral, to replace Brown. Allen was named as Brown's assistant just four days ago. Brown, 50, will return to Washington, Chertoff said.

"I have directed Mike Brown to return to administering FEMA nationally," Chertoff said at a press conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. "Mike Brown has done everything he possibly could to coordinate" the federal response to the hurricane, he said.

Chertoff said the recovery effort is "moving forward" and there is "a lot of work ahead of us."

The Bush administration has drawn criticism from Louisiana officials and from congressional Democrats for a sluggish federal government response to the Aug. 29 storm that probably killed thousands and caused an estimated $100 billion in damage.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi urged President George W. Bush on Sept. 6 to fire Brown, saying he had "absolutely no credentials."

A Time magazine report questioned his official biography, which claims he served as an assistant city manager in Edmond, Oklahoma, in the 1970s with "emergency services oversight."

A statement released by FEMA earlier today stated he was an "assistant to the city manager."

Chertoff declined to answer questions about Brown's background and wouldn't let Brown respond.

At the White House, spokesman Scott McClellan at two separate briefings today declined to defend Brown and wouldn't say directly whether Bush has confidence in him. McClellan would only say that the president "appreciates the work of all those working around the clock" on one of the biggest natural disasters in U.S. history.

Dateline - September 12, 2005 (3 days later):

(Seattle Times) Federal Emergency Management Agency director Mike Brown resigned Monday, three days after losing his onsite command of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. The White House picked a top FEMA official with three decades of firefighting experience as his replacement.

R. David Paulison, head of FEMA's emergency preparedness force, will lead the beleaguered agency, according to three administration sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.

Paulison is a career firefighter from Miami who was among emergency workers responding to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and the crash of ValuJet Flight 592 in the Florida Everglades in 1996, according to a biography posted on FEMA's Web site. He also has led the U.S. Fire Administration since December 2001, according to the site.

As chief of the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Department, Paulison led 1,900 personnel under a $200 million operating budget. He was also in charge of Dade County's emergency management office, according to his biography.

Paulison will lead an agency that has been under fire for its response to the Katrina disaster. Local officials and members of Congress have cited confusion and a lagging response to the Gulf Coast devastation.

Brown had taken much of the heat and was relieved of his onsite command on Friday. In an interview Monday with The Associated Press, Brown said he resigned "in the best interest of the agency and best interest of the president." He said he feared he had become a distraction.

"The focus has got to be on FEMA, what the people are trying to do down there," Brown said.

His decision was not a surprise. Brown was abruptly recalled to Washington on Friday, a clear vote of no confidence from his superiors at the White House and the Homeland Security Department. He also was accused of padding his resume, which Brown has denied.

The president ducked questions about Brown's resignation. "Maybe you know something I don't know. I've been working," the president said to reporters on an inspection tour of damage in Gulfport, Miss. Bush said he planned to talk with Brown's boss, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, from Air Force One on the flight back to Washington.

"There will be plenty of time to figure out what went right and what went wrong," Bush said.

Polls show most Americans believe Bush could have done more to help Katrina's victims, though they also blame leaders of Louisiana and New Orleans. Bush's overall job approval rating is at the lowest point of his presidency.

House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi called Brown's departure long overdue.

"His resignation is the right thing for the country and for the people of the Gulf Coast states," Pelosi said in a statement.

Brown, who said he last talked to Bush five or six days ago, said the resignation was his idea. He spoke Saturday to White House chief of staff Andrew Card, who did not request his departure, according to Brown.

"I'm turning in my resignation today," Brown said. "I think it's in the best interest of the agency and the best interest of the president to do that and get the media focused on the good things that are going on, instead of me."

Shortly after Brown was recalled to Washington last week, officials close to the FEMA director said he would probably resign. They said that even before Katrina, Brown had been planning on leaving the administration late this fall to go into the private sector.

So I have a few questions:

How does a man who was doing a "heck of a job" in the President's mind get removed from his duties within a week, and resign only 10 days after the praise? What does that say about the judgement of the Commander in Chief? Did he make a mistake?

Why is Mike Brown the one deciding what would be in the best interest of the President by resigning? Shouldn't Bush be making that call? After all didn't Donald Rumsfeld twice offer to resign to Bush, only for Bush to decide not to accept the resignation?

Is the real reason Bush seems to not know what's been going on the whole time due to the fact his job is hard work, and he has been working hard at it?

When Bush says, "Maybe you know something I don't know", is that a rhetorical question?