Sunday, September 11, 2005
Politics Trumps Punctuality
No voice boomed over national loudspeakers saying, “Michael Brown, please report to the principals office.” As such, the Bush administration has deftly avoided the chorus of admonishing ooh’s that should have erupted from the nation as Michael Brown was summoned back to Washington D.C. In fact, I am almost in awe at how quiet the administration has been able to keep this whole situation. They “fired” him to appease recent FEMA critics, but kept it uncannily quiet.
First, the Administration “fired” Brown without actually firing him. He was relieved of on-the-ground administration and called back to Washington. Technically he is still the director of FEMA, but his extraction has rendered him unable to affect the relief efforts. This was initially leaked by two anonymous White House sources. This is obviously a planned leak since exactly two people leaked, just enough for the media to confirm the story and print it. Also the Bush administration is notorious for staying unwaveringly on message without any leaks. Once the media had the story as a leak, Bush no longer had to say anything, and the public confirmation of the actions could come from Michael Chertoff rather than Bush himself. Chertoff answered – or rather deflected – all media questions precluding Brown himself from dismantling this clearly airtight political maneuver.
Finally, in perhaps both the most effective and standard political move, all of this occurred on Friday night. This means that the news hits the internet on Friday and doesn’t appear in print until Saturday morning. The story appears as a front page headline on Saturday, but relatively few people check internet news on Friday and almost no one reads the Saturday paper. By the time a few people pick up the special Sunday paper, the story is below the fold and by Monday when people are paying attention to the news again, any mention of Michael Brown is relegated to some obscure section if its even mentioned at all.
These events of the past few days have coaxed a variety of complicated and conflicting emotions to well up in me. I am indescribably thankful that something has been done to check the incompetent bungling of a humanitarian nightmare. In the past, Bush has given the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Tenet for horribly mismanaging the intelligence that led America into a messy bog of a war with no exit strategy. He promoted Condalisa Rice to Secretary of State for ignoring a report entitled “Osama bin Ladin determined to attack inside the United States” and shoving it in a drawer. He promoted Karl Rove to Deputy Chief of Staff shortly after Rove leaked the name of a covert CIA agent to a member of the press (but before he was identified as the source of the leak). And he blindly stood by baseball players whose drug tests came back definitively positive. As such it is wonderful to see that Bush has stepped up to the plate and actually removed Brown from a position where he can cause more damage rather than blindly commending him.
I am disgusted however, that Bush waited until a politically opportune moment to take action that is so necessary especially when so many lives are at stake. He sat for days at his ranch in Texas while a hurricane raged and flooded a major American city. How, after that, could he wait a week to remove an Brown. When lives are not only at risk, but certainly being damaged everyday, how can Bush wait for a politically opportune moment? What Bush did is pretty horrendous. But he is taking steps in the right direction right? I hope?
First, the Administration “fired” Brown without actually firing him. He was relieved of on-the-ground administration and called back to Washington. Technically he is still the director of FEMA, but his extraction has rendered him unable to affect the relief efforts. This was initially leaked by two anonymous White House sources. This is obviously a planned leak since exactly two people leaked, just enough for the media to confirm the story and print it. Also the Bush administration is notorious for staying unwaveringly on message without any leaks. Once the media had the story as a leak, Bush no longer had to say anything, and the public confirmation of the actions could come from Michael Chertoff rather than Bush himself. Chertoff answered – or rather deflected – all media questions precluding Brown himself from dismantling this clearly airtight political maneuver.
Finally, in perhaps both the most effective and standard political move, all of this occurred on Friday night. This means that the news hits the internet on Friday and doesn’t appear in print until Saturday morning. The story appears as a front page headline on Saturday, but relatively few people check internet news on Friday and almost no one reads the Saturday paper. By the time a few people pick up the special Sunday paper, the story is below the fold and by Monday when people are paying attention to the news again, any mention of Michael Brown is relegated to some obscure section if its even mentioned at all.
These events of the past few days have coaxed a variety of complicated and conflicting emotions to well up in me. I am indescribably thankful that something has been done to check the incompetent bungling of a humanitarian nightmare. In the past, Bush has given the Presidential Medal of Freedom to George Tenet for horribly mismanaging the intelligence that led America into a messy bog of a war with no exit strategy. He promoted Condalisa Rice to Secretary of State for ignoring a report entitled “Osama bin Ladin determined to attack inside the United States” and shoving it in a drawer. He promoted Karl Rove to Deputy Chief of Staff shortly after Rove leaked the name of a covert CIA agent to a member of the press (but before he was identified as the source of the leak). And he blindly stood by baseball players whose drug tests came back definitively positive. As such it is wonderful to see that Bush has stepped up to the plate and actually removed Brown from a position where he can cause more damage rather than blindly commending him.
I am disgusted however, that Bush waited until a politically opportune moment to take action that is so necessary especially when so many lives are at stake. He sat for days at his ranch in Texas while a hurricane raged and flooded a major American city. How, after that, could he wait a week to remove an Brown. When lives are not only at risk, but certainly being damaged everyday, how can Bush wait for a politically opportune moment? What Bush did is pretty horrendous. But he is taking steps in the right direction right? I hope?
