Friday, September 09, 2005
Brownie, over and out:WASHINGTON -- Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown is being removed from his role managing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, The Associated Press has learned. Brown is being sent back to Washington from Baton Rouge, where he was the primary official overseeing the federal government's response to the disaster, according to two federal officials who declined to be identified before the announcement. Brown will be replaced by Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad W. Allen, who was overseeing New Orleans relief and rescue efforts.
Brown has been under fire because of the administration's slow response to the magnitude of the hurricane. On Thursday, questions were raised about whether he padded his resume to highlight his previous emergency management background.
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This week, Brown has been called an idiot, an incompetent and worse, according to The Associated Press. The Oklahoma lawyer has emerged as chief scapegoat for what went wrong in the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina.
Jefferson Parish, La., President Aaron Broussard said the bureaucracy has murdered people in the New Orleans area. "Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot," Broussard told CBS. "Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot."