Is That Legal?

This post is a drop of sanity in otherwise a hurricane of justified outrage and unjustified defense of the indefensible. We deal with the least competent and most corrupt administration in decades. But, why did Chertoff take the job?

Eric, I'm aware of Michael Chertoff's professional background (though, I have to confess, I wasn't aware of your personal connection to it). I don't question his prosecutorial zeal or the fact that he's a much, much smarter person than I.

I also know your post wasn't aimed specifically at mine. Still, I stand by my assessment of his performance this past week. Appalling.

Eric must have written his Chertoff post before the President explained with his usual clarity what really happened: it was the state and local officials who screwed up, not anyone connected with his administration.

The Washington Post ran that story on its website late last night under the title, "White House Shifts Blame."

The Post reporters do their typically half-baked job of just "telling the news", meaning they just say here's what the President said -- big story -- you readers draw your own conclusions.

What the Post chose not to do was hammer on the President by mentioning the DHS website, which makes very clear where the fault lies..

Here's what the DHS website says with the link beneath it:

Emergencies & Disasters
Preparing America

In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. The new Department will also prioritize the important issue of citizen preparedness. Educating America's families on how best to prepare their homes for a disaster and tips for citizens on how to respond in a crisis will be given special attention at DHS.

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp

I'd read somewhere that the DHS's own statement does not control here because the aftermath of Katrina was not a "natural disaster." Rather, its entirely a disaster of man-made proportions, that is, Bushian incompetance. Hence, Bush felt entirely comfortable, apparently, in once again misstating the facts and passing the buck.

Thoughtful post.

There was one part, though, that struck me as off-key given recent history: "[Chertoff] is a law enforcement guy . . . It's the reason he was attractive to the President as head of Homeland Security."

Funny, during the presidential campaign, I distinctly remember the Bush folk mocking Kerry when Kerry suggested that law enforcement -- such as prosecutors -- had a role to play in anti-terrorism efforts. (This snark is directed at the Bush folk, not you.)

And while Chertoff might be smart, he was also woefully uninformed days into the disaster. When the NPR reporter asked him about the appalling conditions at either the Superdome or convention center, Chertoff said he'd heard no such thing and proceeded to lecture the correspondent about spreading "rumors." The appalling conditions, of course, had by then been amply documented by the national media. What had Chertoff -- and his staff -- been doing all those days? Given the rough similarities between the flooding caused by the hurricane and the flooding that could have been caused by a terrorist bomb on the levees, I have zero confidence in Homeland Security.

> I think that we are seeing what happens when a
> career prosecutor tries his hand at civilian
> disaster relief. And more generally, I think we
> are seeing what happens when a nation gets so
> fixated on its human enemies that it forgets its
> other vulnerabilities.

Um, I guess I just have to wonder what the FEMA, DHS, the Bush Administration, and the nation's expectations would have been if one of the long-feared terrorists had set off a suitcase nuke next to the 14th Street Levee - say while a tow of gasoline barges was chugging by. As of Monday evening or Tueday morning the situation in New Orleans would have been exactly the same as it was after the non-man-made hurricane. So what exactly WERE they preparing for? Seems like the 2nd or 3rd smartest man in the world would have had that covered.

Cranky

There really is no adequate excuse for Chertoff's ignorance. If he doesn't know natural disasters, then he can learn. Right now, it's part of his job.

Perhaps natural disaster relief--FEMA--should not be a part of homeland security. Until it isn't, it's part of his responsibility.

When Chertoff was asked abot Michael Brown's performance he said, "He's doing a magnificent job." When in fact Brown had not done anything to alleaviate the situation except to blame the victoms.

I've seen this same thing in political types many times, they heap compliments on each other at the very times they are failing miserably. It's their secret code of conduct: cover each other's asses.

There's going to be a Big Bang fallout when the public demands much more from the Government than ever before, starting with a shakeup at DHS and FEMA. Heads will roll like water through the levee.

If you still have Chertoff's email address, maybe you could send him this plea, copied from untold numbers of other pleas posted on the NOLA forum. These posts have been appearing since the night of the storm. They are still appearing.

I've no way of knowing, but I suspect the guys flying the resuce choppers have access to this info. The problem: Not enough people doing the rescuing.

People are dead and more people are dieing while the people charged with saving lives are wasting time doing CYA on national TV.

The deaths of thousands rest, apparently lightly, on the souls of Bush and his appointees. This is more than incompetence. This is dereliction of duty.

My granny is 66 yrs old. Her name is Rosalie G---- and her address is 527 Velmont St. We have been talking to people everyday allday; who is suppose to be rescuing these people and they are telling us to tell her to have her things together and that they will be there within 2 hours and nobody ever shows up. Now she is so sick we cant recongize her voice. There's helicopters flying over her home and she has signs and sheet out with help written on them and still nothing!!! If the rescuers there can't get her why not let family members come and rescue them?

Eric,
September 1st, Chertoff gave a press conference in the morning about some frigging planned-in-advance awareness month, with examples of what to do if you notice something suspicious on the NYC subway or in Wash DC crowd (although there were some, apparently last-minute additions along the lines "and by the way, the same applies to natural disasters").
This is pathology. Party discipline kills even the best brains. Honorable people do not act like this, or recuse themselves in the monasteries after the fact, to pray the sins away.

I certainly agree that a lawyer's skills aren't necessarily the skills one would look for in a disaster management role.

But, recognizing that legal skills are essentially analytical and rhetorical and thus are in some sense parasitic on other bodies of knowledge, wouldn't it behoove lawyers to, say, wait for some evidence about this event and the processes that lead to particular outcomes before pronouncing a verdict? I mean, unless you do have some special skills in this area that you haven't otherwise shared with us.