Brownie Bites Back

Former FEMA head Mike Brown is getting a grilling in Congress, and he's admitted his biggest mistake during the whole Katrina aftermath:

Brown appeared before a special congressional panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe.

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," two days before the storm hit, Brown told the panel.

Brown, who for many became a symbol of government failures in the natural disaster that claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, rejected accusations that he was too inexperienced for the job.

"I've overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I'm doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it," he said.

Despite the attempt to pin all the blame on Bush and Brown, Brown's not buying it and is bluntly explaining FEMA's role to his inquisitors:

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., cautioned against too narrowly assigning blame.

"At the end of the day, I suspect that we'll find that government at all levels failed the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and the Gulf Coast," said Davis.

He pushed Brown on what he and the agency he led should have done to evacuate New Orleans, restore order in the city and improve communication among law enforcement agencies.

Brown said: "Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications."

In part of his testimony, Brown pumped his hand up and down for emphasis.

Brown said the lack of a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans before the storm was "the tipping point for all the other things that went wrong." Brown said he had personally pushed Louisiana Gov. Blanco to order such an evacuation.

He did not have the authority to order the city evacuated on his own, Brown said.

When asked by Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky, whether the lack of an ordered evacuation was "the proximate cause of most people's misery," Brown said, "Yes."

In later testimony (which I haven't found the transcript yet) Brown said FEMA had buses ready to go to pick up the Superdome folks, but didn't proceed due to the media reports of massive crime and violence going on at that site. As Brown reminded the Congressmen, FEMA folks aren't armed and don't go into places where the local authorities have lost control. Could the media be the real cause for the delays in response to the Superdome and Convention Center?