After admitting that his agency was unaware that thousands of New Orleaneans were trapped in the New Orleans Convention Center, without food or water, for several days after the storm, FEMA Director Michael Brown has finally given us all a break and resigned his position.He shouldn't have been there in the first place.
Think of how many years and how much training it takes to become an expert in disaster management. Think of how difficult it is to manage a large-scale rescue/relief mission. Which is exactly why you need a top-notch person to head an agency like FEMA. But, instead of recruiting the best and brightest from a pool of 300 million Americans, we got a friend of the Bush family with no experience at all, let alone any clue what to do when thousands of people were starving to death in brutal heat and putrid water.
Whether you are a Republican or a Democrat, what purpose does it serve to appoint unqualified people to top leadership positions in Government agencies? After all, it is not like a central tenet of conservative ideology says the President should nominate incompetent, unqualified cronies to important positions. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration and its neo-conservative disciples seem to prefer personal friendship, loyalty and partisanship to accountability and competence.
The bottom line is that when you are elected to high office, you should want to do a good job. And if you are President of the United States, with the power to appoint whoever you feel is best qualified to lead the various executive branch agencies, you'd think you would want to select the best experts in their fields. You'd think you would want people who would shine, and in so doing, make you look good as well. After all, when the job market is good and budgets are balanced, people generally look past the Secretary of Labor or the Secretary of the Treasury, and applaud the President. When energy and fuel costs are low, people look past the Secretary of Energy and the Secretary of Transportation and cheer for the President. And when a natural disaster is handled efficiently, and with respect for human life, people get down on their knees and thank God for the President!
Frankly, the rise and fall of Michael Brown makes one wonder whether or not these neo-conservative Republicans care about getting results at all. After all, President Bush commended Brown the day after he fell apart in front of the media, and if it weren't for the outrage of the normally acquiescent media, Brown probably wouldn't ever have had to resign. If the Democrats were the only ones calling him out, it would have been easy to claim "partisanship". But this time the failure was all too obvious, with thousands of people screaming for help, and with the leader of FEMA clueless as to their plight. It was then that America saw what happens when our Government fails to protect us.
This reckless disregard for responsibility and accountability becomes even more shocking when you watch Halliburton and other Bush friends receive billions of dollars from Congress for the "clean up effort". No wonder President Bush said New Orleans would be rebuilt better than before; his buddies are the ones getting the money to do it!
What happens to the State of Virginia if Bush's buddy, Jerry Kilgore, also refuses to take responsibility in a crisis. This is, after all, a person who has denied the existence of the 2002 budget deficit. Will Jerry Kilgore have any reservations about creating future deficits if it helps his friends get contracts to build the pet transportation projects that will be paid for with education funds? Will Jerry Kilgore stand by his friends in the pharmaceutical industry even if it means allowing drug dealers to purchase all the materials they need to make Methamphetamines? Will Jerry Kilgore appoint incompetent leaders, even if it endangers the lives of 7 million Virginians?
We know that Tim Kaine's goal is to maintain Virginia's status as the best managed state in America. We know that Tim Kaine will protect our schools, fight drug dealers, and do anything and everything he can to bring only the most qualified people into leadership positions. Let's demand the best from Virginia, and hold our leaders accountable. Let's support Tim Kaine!