Bill Kristol Wonders Why Michael Brown Got FEMA Position
By Justin Gardner | Related entries in Hurricane Katrina, Smart Things Said By Smart PeopleAnd by the way, so do I. Much, much more on that soon…
But first, it is indeed THAT Bill Kristol. The editor of The Weekly Standard, arguably one of the most influential right-wing magazines in existence.
From the World&Nation
“The more one learns about him,” Republican commentator William Kristol said on Fox News, “one is surprised that he’s in that job in the first place.”
This quote is in a very big article that’s critical of Brown. However, there’s even more criticism of Brown’s ability to do the job from a former employer.
Stephen Jones, a lawyer best known for defending bomber Timothy McVeigh, recalled how he hired Brown fresh from law school two decades earlier. He’d been impressed by Brown’s stint on a nearby city council.But just a few years later, Jones and the other four partners decided to split the firm. To minimize job loss, they unanimously agreed to keep 35 of their 37 employees. Brown was not one of them.
“He did not develop the way we wanted,” Jones said this week. “He was average. Maybe that’s the best way to put it.”
Brown was pleasant enough, if a bit opportunistic, Jones said, but he did not put enough time and energy into his job. “He would have been better suited to be a small city or county lawyer,” he said. Jones was surprised Brown was being considered for job at FEMA but figured it wasn’t impossible he could have risen high enough in local and state government to be considered for a job directing FEMA operations in Oklahoma.
The agents quickly corrected him. This was a national post in Washington, deputy director of FEMA, the arm of the federal government that prepares for and responds to disasters around the United States.
Jones looked at the agents, “You’re surely kidding?”
Does one person’s opinion of Brown’s performance mean he wasn’t qualified for the FEMA job? Of course not.
However, it’s certainly telling that a guy who fired Brown actually said, “You’re surely kidding?” when told that Brown was going to be second in command at FEMA.
And here’s more about his time in the Arabian Horse biz.
Brown left Oklahoma for the first time in 1991, spending almost a decade in Colorado at a job that is not mentioned on his FEMA resume.He was hired by the International Arabian Horse Association, for a newly created position inspecting judges at the group’s 300 horse shows.
Mary Anne Grimmell, a former association president, said he was often quiet and kept to himself, appearing aloof to many, but was known as “The Czar” for his enthusiastic use of power.
Brown’s decisions led to several lawsuits. Although none would go anywhere, the association, not accustomed to being sued, began to raise $1-million for a legal fund. Grimmell and former board member Karl Hart say Brown collected almost $50,000 but kept it for his own legal fees even though the association had planned to defend him as well.
Grimmell and Hart say Brown was asked to leave after that incident. But others, including former association official Lorry Wagner and Brown’s longtime friend and attorney Andrew Lester, say he was ready to leave after almost 10 years.
And then this passage concerns me most of all since it hints at the type of entitlement that the “Good Ole’ Boys” network creates
“He said for a couple years he was going to get a position in Washington,” Hart said. “I was frankly shocked.”There was a simple explanation.
Brown’s close college friend, Joe Allbaugh, had worked as Bush’s chief of staff when he was governor and later managed his 2000 presidential campaign.
When Bush won the presidency, he appointed Allbaugh FEMA director. And Allbaugh took Brown to Washington as the agency’s general counsel.
Brown quickly moved up to FEMA deputy director, and when Allbaugh stepped down, Brown was named the nation’s disaster chief.
However, it looks like both Republicans and Democrats dropped the ball in the wake of 9/11
Neither Republicans nor Democrats seemed bothered by his lack of an emergency background at the 2002 Senate confirmation hearings.Sen. Joseph Lieberman, a Connecticut Democrat who led the hearings, called Brown’s time as an assistant city manager in Edmond a “particularly useful experience” because he had responsibility for local emergency services. But Edmond officials reached this week say he was an assistant to the city manager and did not supervise employees.
However, before we condemn Leiberman’s approval, the criticism should be tempered with the knowledge that Brown wasn’t being entirely truthful about his “assistant city manager” position.
In fact, according to TIME magazine, his job was more akin to an intern position.
…according to Claudia Deakins, head of public relations for the city of Edmond, Brown was an “assistant to the city manager” from 1977 to 1980, not a manager himself, and had no authority over other employees. “The assistant is more like an intern,” she told TIME. “Department heads did not report to him.”
In any case, this story continues to get more and more depressing. Blame who you’d like, but the guy was clearly not ready for the position he was hired for.
And unfortunately, the citizens of New Orleans have paid a tragic price for Michael Brown’s lack of experience.
This entry was posted on Sunday, September 11th, 2005 and is filed under Hurricane Katrina, Smart Things Said By Smart People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
September 11th, 2005 at 12:52 pm
Just so you have the full story, it looks like the sources Time used is revising/extending their statement:
http://www.edmondsun.com/articles/2005/09/09/front/front.txt
September 11th, 2005 at 4:30 pm
Thanks for that Monica. It looks as if TIME possibly misquoted the source, but it still doesn’t make the content of what she said false.
Also, the story you link to has quote a few other questionable Brown resume items. It seems this guy claimed he was a teacher and on the board of a nursing home, but nobody can remember him. Very odd stuff, but we’ll just have to wait and see on those.
In any event, he still wasn’t qualified for the job.
September 12th, 2005 at 4:06 am
It’ll never happen, but it would be nice if someone studied this case for what it says about hiring by this administration and the amount of due diligence exercised by the Senate in its advice and consent role. I suspect that once FEMA was downgraded the Bushies winked that FEMA director was now an unimportant patronage plum and the Washington establishment agreed. That included the Dems who could foresee one of their own as POTUS treating the post the same way.
September 20th, 2005 at 5:44 pm
I cannot understand why Michael Brown is not inprison or at least up on charges for lying to the US Government, the American Citizens, the President and nearly everyone else. Remember Martha Stewart went to prison for lying to a policman. I am not a fan of Martha Stewart but she paid for her lie and no one died over it. Michael Brown’s lies and lack of experience has led to the death of many New Orleans and Mississippi. The uninformed and inadequte mayor carries much of the responsibiltiy for his inaction, The govern for her inaction and Mr. Chertoff of Homeland Security for his incrediable devil may care attitude about requiring memos in order to act in an emergency, and of course President Bush because the buck does stop there. Mr. Albaugh for FEMA Director for appointing/or suggesting a nearly illterate person in disaster preparedness to the post when he retired. So many dropped the ball for these people, at least the ones who wanted to evacuate but could not. The Shame of this will be with us all a very long time.
April 2nd, 2006 at 6:59 pm
and FEMA continues to be incompetant – now they’re planning to kick out all volunteers staying in their tent cities in New Orleans on April 10…
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/wwl033006jbvolunteers.78778329.html
Action Report: FEMA plans to shut down ‘tent cities,’
volunteers scramble to find alternative housing
10:09 AM CST on Friday,March 31, 2006
Bill Capo / WWL-TV Action Reporter
Thousands of volunteers from around the city have been playing crucial roles in the re-building of New Orleans, but the non-profit and religious groups that sponsor them are worried because FEMA plans to close the tent cities that have housed many of the volunteers.
“It’s been astounding, we’ve been able to enlist the support of over, almost 3000 volunteers, if not more than that,� said Mike Hayes with Habitat for Humanity.
Many of the volunteers have been living in “tent cities� set up by FEMA. Two of them housed 1,200 volunteers at a time at a cost of about $100 per person per day. The tent cities had places to sleep, a shower, and a cafeteria.
“We’ve been staying in the FEMA tents, and they have fed us, it’s awesome food, I mean it’s awesome housing, they got hot showers every night for us, so it’s been a great experience so far,� said Auburn University volunteer Lindsey Harder.
FEMA said it has scheduled to close the camps on April 10 and 11.
“Why is this facility being closed down? Well FEMA originally had contracts for about the last six months to operate three camps in the New Orleans areas, and the contracts run out mid-April,� said FEMA representative Leo Skinner.
Non-profit and religious agencies that have sponsored the volunteers said losing the free housing could hurt their efforts to help New Orleans recover.
“The tent cities are critical in maintaining that level of volunteerism. If they are shut down or they go away, we’re going to have two alternatives. We’re either going to lose hundreds of hard working, willing volunteers, or we’re going to have to scramble to find other housing for them,� said Jim Pate with Habitat for Humanity.
Leaders of non-profit and church groups have been scrambling to find new housing for the volunteers who want to come down and help rebuild New Orleans, while at the same time hoping that FEMA will find some way to keep the camps open.
“Right now the biggest issue for us, especially coming up this summer when every youth group in the country wants to come down here, is where are we going to house them, where are we going to put them, where are we going to feed them?� questioned Aaron Arledge with the Louisiana Baptist Convention.
“We’re looking at the possibility of maybe some of the schools that maybe we can swap out gutting and clean up in exchange for housing volunteers,� said Pate.
Habitat for Humanity said they are hoping to get help from Louisiana’s congressional delegation, but are still preparing their own tents to house volunteers.
“Is there any chance that something could be done to keep these camps open? I’m not going to say yes or no, but I can tell you that the extension of the camps is being reviewed by headquarters, FEMA headquarters,� said Skinner.