October 21, 2005

Rewarding incompetency.

We found something interesting buried down near the bottom of this LA Times story on the latest revelations about ex-FEMA head Michael Brown's incompetent handling of the Hurricane Katrina disaster:

Brown is still on FEMA's payroll as a consultant, [FEMA spokesperson Nicol] Andrews confirmed. He works from home, where he is "pulling all the documentation together" for the investigations into Katrina response, she said, and his original 30-day contract was recently extended for another 30 days.
A little searching determined that Brown got US$ 148,000 for his first 30 days as a FEMA consultant. We can only assume he's getting the same amount for his extension.

We wonder what a magpie has to do to get a lucrative gig like that. Exactly how badly would we have to screw something up?

Posted by Magpie at October 21, 2005 03:34 PM | Corruption & Graft | Technorati links |
Comments

It's not you that would have to do the screwing, up or in any direction. Those sort of jobs require choosing the right parents.

Posted by: sean at October 21, 2005 04:34 PM

Somebody needs to do a study on why incompetency is rewards in this culture so much. I think it has to do with the threat of lawsuits.

Maybe there's a link between lawyers, losers and warning labels.

Posted by: redwood at October 21, 2005 04:51 PM

Brownine is obviously being paid to stay quiet. He's got something on Bush; I have no doubt.

Posted by: DeliverusfrmBush at October 21, 2005 11:02 PM

Here's another galling fact. Mike Brown has made more in his first 30 days as a consultant than he made in his last year as a government employee.

When he completes his next month of consulting, he will have made nearly as much as he did during his entire tenure as head of FEMA.

Magpie, you and I, being honorable people, would never turn into such incompetent f*ckups such that we could write ourselves meal tickets like this one.

Verdict? Incompetence is truly its own reward.

Posted by: Saad al-Din Ibrahim at October 22, 2005 04:31 AM

Michael Brown has made a career of being forced out of jobs while receiving huge severance packages.

Posted by: Darryl at October 22, 2005 10:51 AM