markalot
04 Nov 2005, 11:03 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100587.html
washingtonpost.com
Dressed for Success, Primed for Failure
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 4, 2005; 10:44 AM
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Brownie fretted about his attire while New Orleans drowned.
This would make a great sitcom if the results weren't so tragic.
What on earth was this guy doing in charge of federal emergency response?
I like witty e-mails as much as the next cubicle-dweller, but for Michael Brown to be making jokes while hundreds of thousands of people were in crisis--a crisis his agency did very little to alleviate--pushes the boundaries of bad taste. And why is he still on the payroll?
The correspondence that surfaced yesterday reads like an "SNL" skit. Brownie e-mailing his spokeswoman Sharon Worthy, days before Katrina crashed into Louisiana and Mississippi: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"
Days later, after Brownie was reckless enough to appear alongside Bush in a long-sleeved white shirt, came this urgent advice from Worthy: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working."
Look more hard-working. Key word: look. Forget results. It's all about image.
The hurricane hits on Aug. 29. What was the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency worrying about? His appearance. "You look fabulous," Worthy told him.
"I got it at Nordstroms. . . . Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?" Brown replied in perhaps his only rapid response of the crisis. And an hour later: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
He's right about the first part.
And how did Heck of a Job respond when his man in New Orleans wrote him Aug. 31 that "the situation is past critical . . . Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the street with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes. The dying patients at the DMAT tent being medivac"?
"Thanks for update," Brown wrote. "Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"
I don't think we've yet grasped the magnitude of the damage that followed this cavalier attitude. There are now estimates that half of New Orleans residents will never return to their ruined metropolis. The city government is going to shrink to a fraction of its previous size. For all the photo ops and vows to rebuild, it now looks like Katrina has permanently wiped out half of a major American city, if population is a measure of a city's vitality.
Brownie should have plenty of time to work on his wardrobe now. Did the guy ever apologize? No, he went before a congressional committee and said it was other people's fault.
He belongs in the hall of fame for bureaucratic inaction.
Meanwhile, did I. Lewis use a courthouse appearance to speak to the public yesterday? No.
"I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, pleaded not guilty today in U.S. District Court to felony charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and presenting false information to a federal agent," reports the Los Angeles Times .
Instead, Scooter had his lawyer Ted Wells say a few words:
"Mr. Libby has pleaded not guilty to each and every count in the indictment. In pleading not guilty, he has declared to the world that he is innocent. He has declared that he intends to fight the charges in the indictment, and he has declared he intends to clear his good name."
Wells then said Libby would not fight the case in the press. I hate when that happens.
Says the New York Times : "The day's events dampened hopes among some Republicans for a quick resolution to a case that has already cast a long shadow over the White House. Immediately after the arraignment, Mr. Libby's lawyers sought to quell any speculation about a possible plea deal to resolve the politically volatile case."
Lots of buzz about this WashPost piece saying White House aides are debating whether Rove should stay on (number of named sources expressing this view: zero). And there will be even more over this poll which has Bush down to 39 percent:
"For the first time in his presidency, a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll."
One bright spot, on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.: "Half of Americans say he should be confirmed by the Senate and fewer than a third view him as too conservative, the poll found."
Red State Rant has a, well, rant on the Libby indictment:
"Which is worse? Stuffing secret documents down your pants or having a different recollection of events than Tim Russert? . . .
"Just as Caspar Weinberger's bogus indictment five days before the 1992 election was an attempt to criminalize political differences over the Reagan administration's anti-communist policies in Central America, it's reasonable to suggest the Libby indictment is a similar attempt to criminalize differences over Iraq."
Anonymous Liberal has a rather different take:
"Libby's behavior throughout this investigation has bordered on the inexplicable. And he now appears set on going to trial against the best prosecutor in the country with what appears to be an incredibly weak defense. It certainly seems plausible that Libby is relying on the president's pardon power as a backstop. Bush, after all, is in his second term and would have very little to lose politically by granting such a pardon on his way out the door."
Liberal blogger John Scalzi : "I can't imagine that the Bush approval rating could possibly get any lower than it is at the moment, but then again, that's what I thought when it hit 39% a few weeks ago. Considering that there's probably 33% of Americans who would rather chew on jagged glass than to show disloyalty to a sitting Republican president, a 35% approval rating basically means that no one outside the ranks of the ideologically paralyzed right-wing approves of our president. No one. The rating couldn't possibly go lower. Could it?
"What do I think about the Bush's approval rating? Well, I think it's exactly what he deserves. He's a terrible president with an incompetent administration, and it's gratifying to see the large majority of the American people coming around to this fact. Would that they would have come around to this conclusion a year ago, when the vote was on.
"You'll note, however, that I did not say that I was happy that Bush has such a God-awful rating. I'm not. Having a weak and deeply unpopular president makes us vulnerable as a nation, particularly when we are engaged in a war."
...
© 2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive
washingtonpost.com
Dressed for Success, Primed for Failure
By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 4, 2005; 10:44 AM
Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Brownie fretted about his attire while New Orleans drowned.
This would make a great sitcom if the results weren't so tragic.
What on earth was this guy doing in charge of federal emergency response?
I like witty e-mails as much as the next cubicle-dweller, but for Michael Brown to be making jokes while hundreds of thousands of people were in crisis--a crisis his agency did very little to alleviate--pushes the boundaries of bad taste. And why is he still on the payroll?
The correspondence that surfaced yesterday reads like an "SNL" skit. Brownie e-mailing his spokeswoman Sharon Worthy, days before Katrina crashed into Louisiana and Mississippi: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"
Days later, after Brownie was reckless enough to appear alongside Bush in a long-sleeved white shirt, came this urgent advice from Worthy: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working."
Look more hard-working. Key word: look. Forget results. It's all about image.
The hurricane hits on Aug. 29. What was the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency worrying about? His appearance. "You look fabulous," Worthy told him.
"I got it at Nordstroms. . . . Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I go home?" Brown replied in perhaps his only rapid response of the crisis. And an hour later: "If you'll look at my lovely FEMA attire, you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."
He's right about the first part.
And how did Heck of a Job respond when his man in New Orleans wrote him Aug. 31 that "the situation is past critical . . . Hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the street with no food or water. Hundreds still being rescued from homes. The dying patients at the DMAT tent being medivac"?
"Thanks for update," Brown wrote. "Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"
I don't think we've yet grasped the magnitude of the damage that followed this cavalier attitude. There are now estimates that half of New Orleans residents will never return to their ruined metropolis. The city government is going to shrink to a fraction of its previous size. For all the photo ops and vows to rebuild, it now looks like Katrina has permanently wiped out half of a major American city, if population is a measure of a city's vitality.
Brownie should have plenty of time to work on his wardrobe now. Did the guy ever apologize? No, he went before a congressional committee and said it was other people's fault.
He belongs in the hall of fame for bureaucratic inaction.
Meanwhile, did I. Lewis use a courthouse appearance to speak to the public yesterday? No.
"I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff, pleaded not guilty today in U.S. District Court to felony charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and presenting false information to a federal agent," reports the Los Angeles Times .
Instead, Scooter had his lawyer Ted Wells say a few words:
"Mr. Libby has pleaded not guilty to each and every count in the indictment. In pleading not guilty, he has declared to the world that he is innocent. He has declared that he intends to fight the charges in the indictment, and he has declared he intends to clear his good name."
Wells then said Libby would not fight the case in the press. I hate when that happens.
Says the New York Times : "The day's events dampened hopes among some Republicans for a quick resolution to a case that has already cast a long shadow over the White House. Immediately after the arraignment, Mr. Libby's lawyers sought to quell any speculation about a possible plea deal to resolve the politically volatile case."
Lots of buzz about this WashPost piece saying White House aides are debating whether Rove should stay on (number of named sources expressing this view: zero). And there will be even more over this poll which has Bush down to 39 percent:
"For the first time in his presidency, a majority of Americans question the integrity of President Bush, and growing doubts about his leadership have left him with record negative ratings on the economy, Iraq and even the war on terrorism, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll."
One bright spot, on Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito Jr.: "Half of Americans say he should be confirmed by the Senate and fewer than a third view him as too conservative, the poll found."
Red State Rant has a, well, rant on the Libby indictment:
"Which is worse? Stuffing secret documents down your pants or having a different recollection of events than Tim Russert? . . .
"Just as Caspar Weinberger's bogus indictment five days before the 1992 election was an attempt to criminalize political differences over the Reagan administration's anti-communist policies in Central America, it's reasonable to suggest the Libby indictment is a similar attempt to criminalize differences over Iraq."
Anonymous Liberal has a rather different take:
"Libby's behavior throughout this investigation has bordered on the inexplicable. And he now appears set on going to trial against the best prosecutor in the country with what appears to be an incredibly weak defense. It certainly seems plausible that Libby is relying on the president's pardon power as a backstop. Bush, after all, is in his second term and would have very little to lose politically by granting such a pardon on his way out the door."
Liberal blogger John Scalzi : "I can't imagine that the Bush approval rating could possibly get any lower than it is at the moment, but then again, that's what I thought when it hit 39% a few weeks ago. Considering that there's probably 33% of Americans who would rather chew on jagged glass than to show disloyalty to a sitting Republican president, a 35% approval rating basically means that no one outside the ranks of the ideologically paralyzed right-wing approves of our president. No one. The rating couldn't possibly go lower. Could it?
"What do I think about the Bush's approval rating? Well, I think it's exactly what he deserves. He's a terrible president with an incompetent administration, and it's gratifying to see the large majority of the American people coming around to this fact. Would that they would have come around to this conclusion a year ago, when the vote was on.
"You'll note, however, that I did not say that I was happy that Bush has such a God-awful rating. I'm not. Having a weak and deeply unpopular president makes us vulnerable as a nation, particularly when we are engaged in a war."
...
© 2005 Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive