DHS Sec Michael Chertoff must have his internal cop alarms going off. As an old prosecutor, Chertoff knows that in every court house in the land, prosecutors reading the papers are thinking:
1) Joe Allbaugh got the top FEMA job in 2001 from W, his pal,
2) Allbaugh hired Brownie, his college pal, to work as a FEMA lawyer,
3) Allbaugh installed an operating plan in FEMA that gutted the place, tossed out professionals, and then installed work rules that guaranteed FEMA must rely on consultants,
4) In 2003, Allbaugh left to set up his own consulting company and helped Brownie get the FEMA director job,
5) Allbaugh signed up a bunch of private sector outfits, like Halliburton's KBR, as clients,
6) Brownie was in place to approve all the deals,
7) After Katrina hit, it was W's opinion that Brownie was "doing a heck of a job," but others began taking a much closer look,
8) Friday Sept 9, Chertoff replaced Brownie.
Brownie surely wasn't to blame for all the delays and dysfunctions in relief efforts after Hurricane Katrina, but he took the heat. He was unqualified, his agency didn't work all that well and, it turned out, he had embellished his resume. He was revealed to be a private, not a general. He was a pal of a presidential crony who was now a consultant. Brownie's FEMA regime, the one he and the crony pal Allbaugh put together, is under the spot light. W, their patron, is facing the biggest challenge of his presidency since Sept 11: it was revealed in bright lights that a domestic cornerstone of W's plan to fight the war on terror - FEMA - had been run into the ground by incompetent cronies. One was a common resume puffer. What's more, it appeared to any prosecutor and the odd muckraker that they may indeed have been be working, well, a con? Hmmm. Quillnews observtion: This is not over. The sharks are circling. Investigators are hunting every lead they can find... Defense attorneys hover all over K St., just for times like this... What is Chertoff thinking now..? Stay tuned. (Chertoff bio, WSJ, WSJ2, NRO)
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