“He has chang’d his one ey’d horse for a blind one.” Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard’s Almanac, 1733
2001: President Bush announces today that he intends to nominate Michael Brown to head FEMA. ‘Brownie’ as the president calls him, is to become infamous as the face of the incompetent federal response to Hurricane Katrina. While Brown has little to recommend him in the area of emergency management, he did lead an Arabian horse association for nine years. ‘Brownie’ replaces former FEMA director and longtime Bush associate Joe Allbraug. Allbraug also had no notable emergency management experience but he served as head of Bush’s 2000 campaign.
Thus Mr. Brown becomes the second poorly qualified individual appointed by Bush to lead FEMA, a critical asset in the age of terrorism. Bush’s choices stand in sharp contrast to Bill Clinton appointee James Lee Witt, a true expert in the emergency management. Witt’s handling of the Northridge California earthquake, as well as widespread Mississippi river flooding, earned him and FEMA wide praise.
In 2006 Congress would enact a law requiring that the head of FEMA have “a demonstrated ability in and knowledge of emergency management”. President Bush, never one to value competency on the job, would issue a signing statement saying he believed he did not have to obey this requirement.
“So please give cash money to organizations that are directly involved in helping save lives - save the life who had been affected by Hurricane Katrina.” President Bush, September 6th 2005
2006: Columbia University history professor Eric Foner’s op-ed appears in the Washington Post today. Foner compares the faults of presidents previously judged amongst the worst (Andrew Johnson, Franklin Pierce, James Buchanan, Warren Harding, Calvin Coolidge and Richard Nixon) and points out that one president, President Bush, “has managed to combine the lapses of leadership, misguided policies and abuse of power of [all] his failed predecessors. I think there is no alternative but to rank him as the worst president in U.S. history”.
Read more in the 2008 Calendar/Day Planner/Stocking Stuffer: http://www.PoorGeorgesAlmanac.com/onThisDate.htm
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