Phony FEMA Press Conference Organizer Loses Promotion

The fallout is starting from the phony FEMA press conference:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The man who staged a fake Federal Emergency Management Agency news conference concerning the Southern California wildfires has lost a chance to be National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell's top public information officer.

John P. "Pat" Philbin, FEMA's external affairs director, who had been scheduled to move into the new job today, will not be getting it after last week's phony news conference. The staged question-and-answer session was harshly criticized by both the White House and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose department oversees FEMA.

"We do not normally comment on personnel matters," DNI spokesman Ross Feinstein said Monday. "However, we can confirm that Mr. Philbin is not, nor is he scheduled to be, the director of public affairs for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence"

Feinstein said earlier that Philbin's job change had been put on hold while McConnell reviewed his record.

Philbin arranged a hastily-called televised FEMA news conference last Tuesday on the California wildfires. The session was announced on short notice and featured questions for FEMA's deputy administrator, Vice Adm. Harvey Johnson.
No genuine journalists attended, although they were given a conference call number they could use to listen in … but not ask questions. A half-dozen questions were asked at the event … by FEMA staff members posing as reporters.

Philbin was among the six questioners, according to The Washington Post. The questions included: "Are you happy with FEMA's response so far?"

"I think it was one of the dumbest and most inappropriate things I've seen since I've been in government," Chertoff said later.

Everybody involved in that fiasco should have been canned, especially this guy who aptly demonstrated that he was not suited to a public affairs job. Any goodwill FEMA had rebuilt after Katrina was lost in this silly and incredibly dumb event.