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In The Blog's-Eye: Time To Fire FEMA's Chief?

The reactions of conservative and liberal bloggers to Hurricane Katrina have been starkly different, but they apparently agree on one point: Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, should be fired.

It comes as no surprise that liberals are leading the charge to get Brown. Since the depth of destruction from the hurricane became apparent, they have cast blame on just about everyone in the Bush administration for almost anything related to the storm.

John Aravosis of AMERICAblog said Brown "is either incompetent or a liar, and his only job seems to be giving non-stop interviews on TV when he should be coordinating hurricane relief. It's time for President Bush to appoint someone else who can handle the job, and give the guy 60,000 bucks to hire a spokesman."

But conservatives who generally have defended the Bush administration on many fronts are breaking ranks when it comes to Brown. Andrew Sullivan called him a "blithering idiot ... hired with no credentials to run a critical agency at a time of national peril." And Michelle Malkin said President Bush should stop praising Brown and fire him instead.

"This is not the time to give a weak performer the benefit of the doubt," she wrote. "The FEMA director's role in the ongoing recovery effort is too important to be entrusted to a clueless political hack with such poor judgment."

UPDATE: There is now a Fire Brown Now! blog (via Instapundit).

An open letter to the president that The Times-Picayune in New Orleans published at its blog also is getting lots of attention in the blogosphere, including at BuzzMachine. "Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially," the letter said.

UPDATE II: Right-leaning blogger Andrew Sullivan has a roundup of blogs across the political spectrum that are calling for Brown's resignation (hat tip to The Hotline's Blogometer).

Posted by | 09:20 AM

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» Dubya plays oblivious to Michael Brown's failures from Tel-Chai Nation
What a shame. President Dubya has continued with an act he already played when it came to praising the PLO: he praised Michael D. Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, for helping in dealing with the aftermath of hurricane Katrina [Read More]

Tracked on September 5, 2005 12:25 AM

Comments

"Since the depth of destruction from the hurricane became apparent, they have cast blame on just about everyone in the Bush administration for almost anything related to the storm."

Well perhaps Bush should stop appointing cronies in his administration and instead find some competant people. In regulated industry after regulated industry, talk to anybody and you will hear about how some friend of Bush was appointed to a post rather than a qualified candidate.

Anon | 09.10.05 03:42 PM

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