He's back, for a heck of a job

FEMA has rehired former director Mike Brown as a consultant.

Published September 26, 2005 11:38PM (EDT)

Salon editorial fellow Aaron Kinney reacts to some surprising news.

You can't keep a good man down. Or rather, you can't keep a member of the Bush patronage machine from getting a job he's not qualified to do.

In this case, however, the audacity of the hire is no less than astounding: According to Raw Story, CBS News reported today that the Federal Emergency Management Agency is reenlisting disgraced former director Mike Brown -- not to run the agency again, mind you, but to act as a consultant charged with helping the government figure out why FEMA bungled the national response to Hurricane Katrina. In other words, Brown will help investigate what went wrong with the agency that he himself ran in circles while tens of thousands withered for days in festering conditions in New Orleans after the storm struck.

Brown resigned from his job on Sept. 12 after news reports exposed his less-than-glowing professional credentials prior to taking the top FEMA post. He may be eminently more qualified for his new investigative role in terms of understanding the primary evidence involved. We can only hope his team leaps into action more quickly this time in getting to the bottom of the disaster of a federal response to Katrina.


By Aaron Kinney

Aaron Kinney is a writer in San Francisco. He has a blog.

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