It's Not About Brownie

Colorado Luis has a good post urging folks to rethink the framing on the post hurricane discourse. For one thing, he points out that FEMA was not a dumping ground for political operatives (as I have been prone to say) but merely an extension of the Bush re election campaign.

The emerging meme that Bush allowed FEMA to become a dumping ground for people from his campaign who needed jobs is all wrong. Having a political campaign background was considered a positive asset for FEMA, because the most hurricane prone state is Florida. PERRspectives details how the Bush people were ready, willing and able to use the hurricanes that struck Florida last year as an excuse to pour FEMA money all over the state -- even to places like Miami that the hurricanes missed -- turning FEMA into the Florida Election Management Agency:

I also happen to think it's a mistake to foist all of this on Brown. Not only because he hardle bears all the blame here (there's plenty to go around) but it lets everyone else higher up the food chain off the hook. So Dems would be well served to stop carping about Brown and focus more on the question -- what have wew been doing for the last 4 years with all our concern about Homeland security?