Krugman--All the President's Men (Bush has created many FEMA's) [View All]

[Gloria]

Krugman gives a nearly perfect rundown of what the Democrats could be focussing on....


"All The President's Men": Paul Krugman says Bush has created many
FEMA's

The lethally inept response to Hurricane Katrina revealed to
everyone that the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
which earned universal praise during the Clinton years, is a
shell of its former self. The hapless Michael Brown - who is
no longer overseeing relief efforts but still heads the agency
- has become a symbol of cronyism.

But what we really should be asking is whether FEMA's decline
and fall is unique, or part of a larger pattern. What other
government functions have been crippled by politicization,
cronyism and/or the departure of experienced professionals?
How many FEMA's are there?

Unfortunately, it's easy to find other agencies suffering from
some version of the FEMA syndrome.

The first example won't surprise you: the Environmental
Protection Agency, which has a key role to play in Hurricane
Katrina's aftermath, but which has seen a major exodus of
experienced officials over the past few years. In particular,
senior officials have left in protest over what they say is the
Bush administration's unwillingness to enforce environmental
law.

SNIP (he goes through Food and Drug Admin; Corp. for Public Broadcasting, Treasury, and FEMA in detail including Kerik, etc.)


The point is that Katrina should serve as a wakeup call, not just
about FEMA, but about the executive branch as a whole. Everything
I know suggests that it's in a sorry state - that an administration
which doesn't treat governing seriously has created two, three,
many FEMA's.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/12/opinion/12krugman.html?hp