While everyone else is parceling out blame for the inept response to Hurricane Katrina, and even Michelle Malkin—Michelle Malkin!—is calling for FEMA director Michael Brown to be fired, I think it’s worth pointing the finger in a different, somewhat unexpected direction: the Senate Democrats who approved Brown’s nomination on a voice vote in 2002. Obviously this pales beside the issue of having a president tap one of his cronies’ former roommates—whose previous experience included being fired from the Arabian Horse Association—for a top disaster relief spot. But it does put the lie to the idea that Congress should just defer to the president when he makes his picks for various federal agencies. A little more scrutiny would have been appreciated.
