In an administration in which PR is policy, it sounds like Fema chief Mike D. Brown has already effectively been demoted, according to this Post article:

...In his last extended TV interview on CNN, Brown admitted Thursday that the federal government did not know that thousands of survivors without food or water had taken shelter at the city's convention center, despite a day of news reports.

Since then, Brown has been eclipsed by his boss, Chertoff -- who flew overnight Sunday to take charge of integrating military with civilian efforts -- and by a new deputy, U.S. Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen, whom Chertoff named yesterday to take charge of federal recovery efforts in New Orleans.

His last effective long TV interview was Thursday - a half life in this storm aftermath, and he was notably invisible on the administration's PR push on the Sunday talk shows. The Post also notes that his old college pal, GOP lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, who hired Brown as general counsel of FEMA from the beleaguered International Arabian Horse Association, is now only offering a "qualified" defense of Brown. It all reminds one of how Jay Garner suddenly just disappeared from Iraq.

Posted by Laura at September 6, 2005 07:01 AM