Stay Classy, Brownie

On Super Bowl Sunday, former FEMA Director Michael Brown tweeted:

Given that one of the failings of the response to Katrina under Brown’s watch was the disaster that developed at the Superdome, seemingly without FEMA knowing much of anything about it for days, this strikes me tasteless. Of course, based on his avatar it would appear that Brown has become a talk radio host, and in that context this type of humor is par for the course. I would note that if Brown’s post-administration career path has been to become a media personality is a reminder of his general lack of qualifications for the job he held in the Bush administration.

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Steven L. Taylor
About Steven L. Taylor
Steven L. Taylor is a retired Professor of Political Science and former College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

  1. OzarkHillbilly says:

    I am not surprised.

  2. Rob in CT says:

    Brownie is a jerk?

    #shocked

  3. Tony W says:

    Meh. Just true to character, and remember you voted for his boss in the election that soon followed.

  4. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    At least there were no incidents of rape and cannibalism this time at the Superdome.

    Brownie’s ineptness were at least equaled if not surpassed by Nagin’s and Blanco’s. It’s just that they had a better PR machine behind them that shifted attention away from them and on to Brown and Bush.

  5. @Tony W: I assure you that had his boss been on a ballot after Katrina, he would not have gotten my vote. (Amongst other things, you are mis-remembering when the events happened).

  6. Tony W says:
  7. edmondo says:

    When poor people die, rich people laugh. Not sure why you considered this particular instance unusual.

  8. Mike says:

    Didn’t Nagin just get indicted?

  9. Jenos Idanian #13 says:

    @Mike: Several years too late, but yeah, Nagin finally got indicted.

  10. legion says:

    Wow. This douche and Todd Kincannon should get together and start a band…

  11. Mike says:

    @edmondo: Yes. When a poor person dies, all rich people laugh. Your an idiot. There are a lot of rich people who donate millions of dollars like Bill Gates, Bono, etc… Brownie is just an ass – whether he is a rich or poor one is immaterial.

  12. Rick Almeida says:

    Please remember that if there is any systematic racial animus remaining in the US, it is that which is directed against whites by non-whites.

    Also please note that Brown and Kincannon are isolated incidents and it is inappropriate to draw any connections.

    Last, Solyndra, Fast and Furious, BENGHAZI!!!!

  13. al-Ameda says:

    From the “Better watch pot Brownie” File:

    If they dig a little deeper they may find that the power went out because Brownie had an inferior electrical service installed there.

  14. anjin-san says:

    @ Rick Almeida

    You forgot “Obama ate dog”…

  15. Fear the Same says:

    Is there evidence that Brown was uniquely incompetent? 2005 was an unusually high hurricane season. (Warmists were quick to dub it the new normal and argue that this was all the evidence we needed.) Before Katrina, there had been little focus on FEMA’s failings. Personally, I think Brownie was the scapegoat foir the failings of FEMA overall. Better to believe that FEMA failed because W. appointed someone in incompetent than a bloated beuracracy does not handle emergencies wel. (There was also the decision to bundle FEMA with Homsec which would have been partially Bush’s fault not Brown’s.

    What reports that have allowed to come in on Sandy indicate tha FEMA has not improved at all all after several different directors.

    As to how becoming Media personality proves incompetence, most people hailled Elliot Spitzer and Jennifer Granholm hightly competent for much of their careers., Currrently, they are employers of All That Jazzera.

  16. mantis says:

    @Fear the Same:

    Is there evidence that Brown was uniquely incompetent?

    Unique among humans or unique among FEMA directors? Doesn’t really matter. The answer to both is yes.

    Personally, I think Brownie was the scapegoat foir the failings of FEMA overall.

    Indeed, Bush f*cked up FEMA royally. A big part of that was putting an incompetent like Brown in charge.

    Better to believe that FEMA failed because W. appointed someone in incompetent than a bloated beuracracy does not handle emergencies wel.

    FEMA was well managed under Clinton, and worked well. FEMA is well managed under Obama, and works well. FEMA under Bush was a disaster, because he made it a disaster.

    What reports that have allowed to come in on Sandy indicate tha FEMA has not improved at all all after several different directors.

    What reports are you referring to?

    As to how becoming Media personality proves incompetence

    Keep whacking that strawman.

  17. legion says:

    @Fear the Same:

    Is there evidence that Brown was uniquely incompetent?

    To pitch in with Mantis: yes. Brown was a private-practice lawyer and a commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association (shades of Romney!) who’d failed at several runs for Congress when he was picked up as a counsel for FEMA by his buddy Joe Allbaugh, just appointed FEMA boss by W. Bush. After Allbaugh retired, Brown fell into the directorship, one assumes, because Bush liked him. That was in 2003. When Katrina hit in 2005, he displayed a stunning incompetence and total lack of understanding of even the most basic functions of the agency he’d been nominally running for 2 years. He glommed onto the limelight and inserted himself into operations much better-handled by experienced personnel below the Director level and made shockingly wrong-headed decisions at literally every single opportunity. There is no aspect of Katrina or its aftermath that wouldn’t have gone better if Brownie would have kept his mouth shut and stayed off TV. It’s clear he learned exactly nothing, not just from that experience, but from any experience he’s ever had.