I don’t pretend to know all the rights and wrongs of the quarrel between the Louisian Governor’s Office and the White House over control of the post-Katrina relief effort, but if it’s a choice between having Michael “Helluva job Brownie” Brown running things and having Jamie Lee Witt running things, all I can say is: “Come on, ask me a hard one.”
Note that firing Brown — a step which Bush will no doubt get around to eventually — isn’t the same as putting someone competent in charge. The obvious people to stand in until a successor is confirmed are Brown’s own immeidate subordinates, and nothing about his record suggests that those subordinates are likely to be up to the job.
First-rate people hire first-rate people; second-rate people hire third-rate people. Heaven only knows what sort of people a creature like Brown might have hired.