Okay, so Michael Brown’s hold on the FEMA sachemship is now officially over. The funny thing is — though I guess maybe not to him — is that he really was planning on leaving his FEMA post before his whole racket blew up in his face and he was forced to resign in disgrace.
See this snippet blow from the Post from August 1st of this year.
Even more telling, though, note his apparent attempt to ‘pull an Allbaugh’ by handing the gig off to his manifestly unqualified deputy Patrick Rhode, one-time advance man for the Bush-Cheney campaign …
Michael D. Brown , who runs the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the Department of Homeland Security, sent around a memo a couple of weeks ago saying “effective immediately,” his chief of staff, Patrick Rhode , was the acting deputy director.
This caused some head-scratching, because there is no official deputy director position at FEMA, because there is no official director. The last person to hold such a post was Brown, before FEMA got folded into DHS. (Brown is now officially DHS undersecretary for emergency preparedness and response.)A recent strategic review called for naming a deputy director, but Congress hasn’t approved that plan and agencies don’t usually go ahead without congressional blessing. Even more curious, it’s not clear whether DHS or the White House, which approves such personnel moves, had signed off on Brown’s move. FEMA says its general counsel approved the action.
Brown is widely expected to be leaving soon, and there has been some FEMA speculation that this is his way of trying to pave the way for a successor. Rhode had been associate administrator of the Small Business Administration.
Brownie <$NoAd$>…
