Brown: I Warned White House As Katrina Hit

[steven]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former federal disaster chief Michael Brown, the face of the government's listless response to Hurricane Katrina, said Friday he told top Bush officials the day the storm howled ashore of massive flooding in New Orleans and warned "we were realizing our worst nightmare."

More defiant than defensive, Brown told senators he dealt directly with White House officials the day of the Aug. 29 storm, including chief of staff Andrew Card and deputy chief of staff Joe Hagin.

He also said the Homeland Security Department was among a half-dozen government agencies that received regular briefings that day from him and other officials by way of video conference calls. Administration officials have said they did not realize the severe damage Katrina had caused until after the storm had passed.

Under oath, Brown told the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that he could not explain why his appeals failed to produce a faster response.

"I expected them to cut every piece of red tape, do everything they could ... that I didn't want to hear anybody say that we couldn't do everything they humanly could to respond to this," Brown said about a video conference with administration officials - in which President Bush briefly participated - the day before Katrina hit. "Because I knew in my gut this was the bad one."


http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_BROWN?SITE=NYBUE&SECTION=HOME

[WestSideJohn]

What he's saying now doesn't quite fit with the way he was acting during the crisis. I think he's just trying to give President Bush a bigger slice of the blame pie while leaving his own plate empty.

[steven]

could be......
or could be he decided not to be a good soldier anymore because he got tired of being the fall guy.

I imagine people boo and hiss at him when he walks down the street (lol). He might have decided he didnt want to spend the rest of his life being the brunt of light night TV jokes.

The truth probably lies somewhere in the middle.

[300miles]

Whatever happened to his Chocolate City speach about it all being God's wrath, and all that jazz...

For him to still be pointing fingers 6 months later is just sad. He needs to stop wasting time and energy blaming other people, and start acting like a leader to rebuild his friggin city.

[WestSideJohn]

Originally posted by 300miles
Whatever happened to his Chocolate City speach about it all being God's wrath, and all that jazz... For him to still be pointing fingers 6 months later is just sad. He needs to stop wasting time and energy blaming other people, and start acting like a leader to rebuild his friggin city.Michael Brown (Brownie) isn't the Mayor of New Orleans. He's the former head of FEMA currently testifying before Congress. He never said <i>anything</i> even remotely like what you just claimed.

[therising]

The word Incompetent will forever be linked to Brownie.

In the real world, if someone hires an incompetent person and lets them run amok, the person who did the hiring ultimatlely take the responsibility for whatever went wrong. That's called owning up to your mistakes.

Not sure if that happened here.

[300miles]

OMG. I'm an idiot! I should not reply to anything at 3am.

the pointing fingers at this point is still silly though. everyone needs to move on.

did anyone see the South Park episode mocking the whole Katrina mess? The kids accidentally blew up a beaver dam and flooded a town below it. Even when the kids confessed, everyone sat around blaming everything from the residents of the town, to GW Bush, to global warming. Nobody wanted to accept the fact that it was just caused by some stupid kids. Meanwhile while everyone bickered about Bush, Terrorists, and Global Warming the residents of the town were still on their rooftops waiting for help that never arrived.

[DR_GONZO]

He was even chirping 'Under Oath'. Something current 'Smoke & Mirrors Administration' officials never do. I guess only former ones can do this.