Feeling Bad For Brownie -- And Mad At The Senate

Michael Brown has resigned as the head of FEMA. He and the White House both maintain that "This was Mike Brown's decision. This was a decision he made." But the fact that Bush nominated a replacement within minutes of Brownie's announcement makes that claim a bit preposterous. He was thrown to the lions, pure and simple.

Certainly, it is appropriate that Brown be replaced. His total lack of experience and his incredibly bad judgment in choosing his words have made him the butt of innumerable jokes and the lightening rod for all of the anger and frustration engendered not only by the problems with the relief effort but with the storm itself. But, I don't think Brown actually deserves the vituperation that has been visited on him. Brown is probably a good man, with a good heart, and he probably did the very best he could in responding to the emergency. Frankly, that is about all you can demand of a civil servant. The problem, in short, is not with Brown himself but with the fact that he was placed in a job for which he clearly was not qualified and the duties of which he was plainly not competent to discharge. The jokes, snide remarks, and particularly the anger directed at Brown would be far more fairly directed at the President who appointed and the Senators who confirmed him.

In this regard, I find particularly contemptible the righteous indignation of Senators. Senator Clinton, says "'I would never have appointed such a person.'" So, where were you, Senator, when the Senate voted to confirm his appointment? "'Let's bring in someone who is a professional,' urged Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md." That advice would have been a heck of a lot more helpful before Brown was confirmed.

The "advice and consent" duties of the Senate are imposed by the Constitution precisely to provide a safeguard against the appointment of incompetents to posts of national importance. Rather than piling on Brown or even the President, these Senators, indeed the Senate as a whole, should be apologizing to the American People for so completely failing to perform their own duties.

UPDATE: This from an editorial in today's Washington Post:

As we wrote yesterday [see "Congress Heal Thyself"], Mr. Brown received only a 42-minute Senate confirmation hearing when he was nominated to be deputy director of FEMA, and no hearing at all when he became its boss. . . . Congress and the administration should now focus hard on R. David Paulison, head of FEMA's emergency preparedness force, who has been nominated to replace Mr. Brown. A former Miami-Dade County fire chief who helped Florida cope with Hurricane Andrew, Mr. Paulison may be qualified. But before coming to that conclusion, it would help if Congress and the White House take a bit more than 42 minutes to find out.

42 minutes?! Yes, indeedy, it sure would "help" if the Senate took its Constitutional responsibilities a bit more seriously than that.