A Farewell to "Brownie"

Up, up and away!

Last night during Keith Olbermann's Countdown on MSNBC, he mentioned former FEMA director, Michael Brown, would be testifying before the senate today as part of its investigation into the administration's Katrina response.

Brown may be weary from being the poster child of that post-hurricane disaster. As ABC News reported Brown "signaled earlier this week that he was prepared to discuss his storm communications with President Bush and other top White House officials-- a possible signal that his testimony would assign blame elsewhere.

"The White House has barred some top advisers and staffers from answering Senate investigators' questions about the administration's response, saying that certain discussions and documents must remain confidential. But Brown, who quit FEMA shortly after the storm and left the federal payroll Nov. 2, is no longer covered by that confidentiality protection."

I seriously doubt Brown is holding information that could be damaging to the president and his White House because it was just a week ago last Tuesday Bush reminded Americans in his state of the union address:

"A hopeful society expects elected officials to uphold the public trust.... to strengthen the ethical standards of Washington -- I support your efforts. Each of us has made a pledge to be worthy of public responsibility -- and that is a pledge we must never forget, never dismiss, and never betray."

I'm sure if Bush had any more information damaging to him and the White House, we would already know it. After all, he promised us he would investigate himself and his administration. He would get to the bottom of things. Reveal all the White House's disastrous disaster failings.

And we have Bush's assurances, as reiterated in his SOTU address, to never betray the public trust, so I'm sure Bush has been working long and hard to discover where Bush went wrong. With that, I'm not even sure why the senate is wasting their time or our taxpayer's money. Bush promised us he would tell us.

Never the less, just in case Michael Brown should decide to go forward with his testimony before the senate today revealing information in his communications with the White House during Katrina, he may want to remember Richard Clark, Paul O'Neill, Valerie Plame, Joe Wilson, Senator McCain and a long list of others. "Betrayal" of the White House begets betrayal from the White House.

Be prepared to suffer the slings and arrows of further discreditating by the administration. Oh, don't worry Brownie about your FEMA response to Katrina. America already knows how unqualified you were to run the nation's top emergency relief agency, so I doubt some new Bush revelation of your incompetency can harm you.

But think about deeper revelations of your personal life. Ask John McCain or Scott Ritter. And for Pete's sake, stay away from airports, but if you find yourself in one, never, ever permit yourself to be whisked away by a couple of unidentified strangers in dark suits to an small unmarked jet on the tarmac. Some of those are known to make regular runs to third world countries.