In the immediate aftermath of the Hurricane Katrina disaster, Team Rove staved off a political firestorm by issuing talking points that characterized criticism of the president’s performance (or lack thereof) as attempts to “play the blame game.” This was a surprisingly effective strategy but the enormity of the failure of leadership required more blame-shifting.
Michael Brown, the FEMA director during the crisis, was a convenient patsy.A die-hard Republican loyalist, Brown appeared to stay true to the president during the grilling he took from Democrats when Congress investigated the federal govenment’s failures during Katrina.
Now, maybe — just maybe — Brown is has had enough of maltreatment from the Bush political office. Last week, he revealed the contents of an email from a senior Bush official who told Brown that the president was grateful that he had fallen on his sword:
This was the text of the email message to Brown read on the air: “I did hear of one reference to you, at the Cabinet meeting yesterday. I wasn’t there but I heard someone commented that the press was sure beating up on Mike Brown, to which the President replied, ‘I’d rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff.'”
