Josh Marshall has a few choice words for the Disaster readiness consultancy firm Michael Brown is starting.
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: November 20, 2005 - November 26, 2005 Archives
First , from an AP article:
Brown said officials need to "take inventory" of what's going on in a disaster to be able to answer questions to avoid appearing unaware of how serious a situation is.In the aftermath of the hurricane, critics complained about Brown's lack of formal emergency management experience and e-mails that later surfaced showed him as out of touch with the extent of the devastation.
Then Josh, from TPM
This guy's really a Bush man through and through, ain't he?It's important to keep close tabs on everything going on in your disaster so as to avoid the true catastrophe of having the press think you're not on top of things.
It's good to see that getting knocked around last Fall helped get his priorities straight.
In Josh's previous post on the news of Brown's intentions, Brown said this::
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: November 20, 2005 - November 26, 2005 Archives
"You have to do it with candor. To do it otherwise gives you no credibility. I think people are curious: 'My gosh, what was it like? The media just really beat you up. You made mistakes. I don't want to be in that situation. How do I avoid that?'"
And this service is going to in demand by who? The fact that Brown was so woefully unprepared and unarmed with bare facts about the disaster is going to be something which makes people line up at his door to find out how he did it? As Josh says, it seems that the key thing here is not to APPEAR incompetent. But even there, we're supposed to learn from someone who failed miserably at that as well? I have a suggestion for anyone who wants to "spin" appearances: get it handled on Fox News. Maybe Fox News should hire him. He can do a show with Ollie North.
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