Mike Brown never had a chance.
The now-resigned head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was simply too unprepared and too unqualified for the post when he was appointed to it. His only apparent qualification for the post was his previous history with George W. Bush. After 9/11, how was he or the Bush administration supposed to know he'd actually have to respond to a catastrophe? Somehow, the Bush administration allowed political cronyism to trump caution when it came to picking the leader of a crucial agency in the Department of Homeland Security. While political patronage is not unique to the Bush administration, it is one of the most glaring cases of political abuse in recent memory.
Brown, or "Brownie" as Bush affectionately nicknamed him, did not have the qualifications to head a federal agency that once held the status of cabinet rank. He got the job because Bush values loyalty above all else, and Brownie was a college roommate of former FEMA director Joe Allbaugh, who ran Bush's 2000 campaign for president. Allbaugh was appointed as FEMA's director and hired Brown - who had been fired from his previous job at the International Arabian Horse Association - as his general council, effectively making him second in charge at FEMA. After Allbaugh's departure for a lucrative job as a disaster relief lobbyist for Halliburton and the Shaw Group - who have coincidentally been given the first contracts to begin recovery work along the Gulf Coast - Brown was tapped by Bush to lead FEMA. FEMA at this point had fallen under the umbrella of Homeland Security after the 9/11 attacks. In his r?(c)sum?(c), Brown said that he was an assistant city manager with emergency services oversight. In actuality he is reported to have been the assistant to the city manager that held no oversight responsibility for anything, a misrepresentation that makes him even less qualified to run FEMA. In fact, there are numerous discrepancies in his r?(c)sum?(c) as to his previous job titles and whom he worked for. When this came to light he was not fired, as is the case for most of us who have lied when applying for a job and are caught. Bush continued to stand by his beleaguered crony who was overwhelmed at every step in his agency's response to the relief effort being conducted on behalf of Katrina's victims.
Republican Administrations have historically treated FEMA as a dumping ground for political appointees. Some speculate the first Bush lost his reelection bid due to FEMA's lackluster response to Hurricane Hugo and the earthquake that hit San Francisco in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The agency found redemption and success under the Clinton Administration with the appointment of James Lee Witt, who formerly ran emergency management agencies in Arkansas, and symbolized efficient government that worked. That changed in 2000, when career workers who rose through the ranks held 40 percent of top FEMA jobs including the chief of staff. By 2004, only 19 percent of top jobs went to those working within the ranks and 11 of the top 15 are held by political patronage appointees of Bush. This has become such a problem that former Reagan administration FEMA director Gen. Julius Becton Jr. recently declared that the agency has become too political and should be run by a non-political appointee.
As they say, "to the victor goes the spoils," but Bush has taken political patronage to new lows. Politicians will always appoint those aligned with them to jobs within any administration, but Brown's term shows why experience matters. Bush must stop appointing those whose only qualification is loyalty to him, at the expense of us.
