The Washington Monthly

September 15, 2005

MIKE BROWN WATCH....SPECIAL EDITION....The New York Times features an extended interview with Mike Brown today. I don't really know what to make of it. Is he blaming Chertoff and Bush, even though he says he isn't? Does he realize that recounting his frantic — and apparently futile — efforts to get anyone to pay attention to him just makes him look like a doofus? Or that this passage is pathetic?

The crowd in the Superdome, the city's shelter of last resort, was already larger than expected. But Mr. Brown said he was relieved to see that the mayor had a detailed list of priorities, starting with help to evacuate the Superdome.

Mr. Brown passed the list on to the state emergency operations center in Baton Rouge, but when he returned that evening he was surprised to find that nothing had been done.

"I am just screaming at my F.C.O., 'Where are the helicopters?' " he recalled. " 'Where is the National Guard? Where is all the stuff that the mayor wanted?' "

I dunno. Read the whole thing. Maybe there's a deep layer that I'm not picking up on, but all his efforts to explain himself seem to backfire. Whether true or not, his attempt to blame state officials looks petty and lame, and his attempt to defend everyone else accomplishes just the opposite. Weird.

—Kevin Drum 1:19 AM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (0)

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