We all knew that the president picks his aides from among his friends, but this is as ridiculous as it is criminally negligent:
Before joining FEMA in 2001, Brown, a protege of longtime Bush aide Joseph Allbaugh, was commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association and had virtually no experience in disaster management.
An official biography of Brown’s top aide, acting deputy director Patrick Rhode, doesn’t list disaster relief experience.
The department’s No. 3 official, acting deputy chief of staff Brooks Altshuler, also does not have emergency management experience, according to FEMA spokeswoman Natalie Rule.
Rule said the absence of direct experience managing emergencies is irrelevant because top managers need “the ability to keep the organization running.”
But Eric Holdeman, director of the King County Office of Emergency Management in Seattle, said familiarity with the specifics of disaster management is essential.
“Experience is not just general managerial experience, it’s experience in the field,” he said.
Government by and for the fundraisers and cronies (and their college room-mates). In wartime. Unforgivable.
The Dish 