Brownie Is Out of There

A couple days ago, I predicted that Bush would not fire Michael Brown, despite the demand from both the right and left that he do so. Well, it looks like that I was sort of wrong in my prediction:

Amid harsh criticism of federal relief efforts, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff announced Friday that Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, is handing over Hurricane Katrina relief duties to a Coast Guard official and returning to Washington to oversee the national office.

“Other challenges and threats remain around the world,” and Brown is needed to prepare for those, Chertoff said at a news conference in Baton Rouge.

When one considers the fact that Bush will not fire anyone in his administration who acts incompetently, I think his decision today was about as good as this nation could possibly hope for. Brown needed to go, because even if he finally was able to pull his head out of his backside and perform competently from this point on, he would have nonetheless remained as a living, breathing symbol of Bush Administration ineptitude.

Bush can't afford that right now, given his all-time low poll numbers. Let him justify this as a necessary act because of the evil liberal media or whatever -- I don't care. From the sole standpoint of FEMA morale, this was a good move.

Indeed, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to hear that Michael Brown wanted to be relieved of this particular task. As many commentators have pointed out, it is pretty obvious that Brown's appointment as FEMA head had little to do with competence and everything to do with politics. Brown simply had that Dan Quayle "deer-in-the-headlights" appearance every time I saw him on television. He was way over his head and he looked it. Chertoff, on the other hand, at least looked like he was in control despite his idiocy.

Bush obviously considered FEMA an unimportant agency and thus a good dumping ground for folks he wanted to pay back for their help but were too incompetent for a "real" job in his administration. Once again, our president gambled, and we lost.

I still stand by my prediction that Brown will "retire" sometime before the 2006 mid-terms. I no longer think he'll get the Medal of Freedom, though -- a reader pointed out that such an award would be too over-the-top given what has happened in the last couple of weeks, and it is hard to argue with that, especially now that Brownie has been relieved from overseeing the Gulf Coast recovery. After all, Karl Rove is an idiot, but he's not stupid.