What’s to blame for government’s massive ineptitude in the early onset of Hurricane Katrina?
Blame patronage—the traditional privilege of mayors, governors and presidents to appoint political and financial supporters to important responsibilities without regard to qualifications.
Ambassadors, postmasters and, yes, heads of emergency-relief organizations don’t have to have experience, education, passing test scores or any other credentials to assume their posts.
Michael D. Brown, under secretary of homeland security and director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is one of those horses’ asses—or, more precisely, the former failed commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Assn .
Brown, a lawyer, first joined FEMA in 2001 as general counsel—hired by a former Dubya campaign manager, then director of the agency.
Although he claims to have overseen responses to 164 presidential-declared emergencies, Brown himself is now the biggest disaster in his own checkered career. (11 SEPTEMBER 2005)
