Apparently, Brownie wasn't doing such a good job after all.
You remember Brownie: Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency and in that capacity, a focal point for mounting criticism of that agency's leisurely response to Hurricane Katrina.
Brownie's qualifications for that job have since been revealed: He used to run horse shows and was a friend of a friend of the president. A week ago Friday, that president offered support for his beleaguered subordinate. "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job," said George W. Bush.
By Monday, Brownie was out of work. He resigned, having evidently read the writing on the wall.
The next day, having apparently seen that same graffiti, Bush himself said, "To the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."
I found that shocking, but that's only because I had thought Bush physically incapable of taking responsibility. Having watched him brazen his way through successive botches and bungles here and abroad with an Alfred E. Newman grin and a maddening insistence that botches and bungles were part of the master plan, I thought Bush's eyes would roll back if he even came close to saying, "My bad."
