After FEMA Embarrassments, Another Questionable Political Nomin

[JABBS]

In the days leading up to FEMA Director Michael Brown's resignation, it became clear that not only was Brown not qualified for his job, but the #2 and #3 appointees at FEMA also lacked emergency management qualifications.

How does this happen? Because the White House and its cabinet secretaries rewarded political friends, placing party before country. In past administrations, fund-raisers like Brown would have been given ambassadorships to countries with little chance of upheaval -- like New Zealand or Fiji.

So, after the limp federal response to Hurricane Katrina, which led to Brown's removal and a rare mea culpa from President Bush, wouldn't you think the Bush Administration would learn from such an obvious mistake?

Not so, apparently.

Julie Myers was nominated by Bush to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the agency that is charged with hunting down money launderers, sanctions busters and human traffickers and that is the sole enforcer of U.S. immigration laws. ICE, with 20,000 employees, is the second-largest investigative agency in the federal government.

Myers is a Brooklyn attorney and former chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, when he ran the Criminal Division at the Department of Justice. Some think she was nominated as a reward for her work with Chertoff, rather than for her qualifications.

During her confirmation hearing Sept. 15 before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, her resume was found lacking.

"I'm really concerned about your management experience," said Sen. George V. Voinovich (R-Ohio), a leading critic also of Bush's nomination of U.N. Ambassador John Bolton. "I think that we ought to have a meeting with Mike Chertoff ... to ask him ... why he thinks you're qualified for the job. Because based on your resume, I don't think you are."

***

The law establishing the Department of Homeland Security specifies that the head of ICE should have at least five years management experience in law enforcement. Myers just gets over that bar.

But Voinovich told United Press International after the hearing that he was concerned that -- aside from two years in Brooklyn -- she had spent little more than a year in each of those positions. "So often you really don`t get into the depth of managing until you been some place more than a couple of years," he said.

***

This article first appeared at Journalists Against Bush's B.S.

[LincolnMcGrath]

1. Excellent

K & R

[woodsprite]

2. When Carper talked yesterday, he said 5 of the 8 under Brown

were highly questionable and did not appear qualified for the jobs.

Edited to add: He said some good things about Voinovich, but then amended to say that there was not much that you could do if you were republican and wanted to stay in politics other than tow the line.

[LincolnMcGrath]

3. Bump

[genius]

4. It happens because Reid doesn't do his job. He's supposed to

find out whether these guys are qualified and oppose them if they are not.

[JABBS]

5. I don't know if that's fair

The GOP has a majority on the committee. Even for someone like Bolton, the best the Democrats could do is force a tie.

As for the earlier FEMA employees, including Brown, didn't they pre-date Reid becomeing minority leader? Wouldn't it be Daschle to blame?