I don't know about anyone else, but pretty much the last person I want to hear from when it comes to the government's response to a crisis, real or perceived, is George W. Bush's former FEMA director, Michael Brown. I suspect I'm far from being alone.
That didn't stop CNN from bringing him on to discuss the right wing's latest version of "this is Obama's Katrina" this Monday evening: Michael ‘Heckuva Job Brownie’ Brown Responds to Ebola/FEMA Comparison:
Well, Brown was on CNN tonight to talk about the government’s response to Ebola, and Don Lemon had to bring up comparisons between that and how he responded to Hurricane Katrina back in 2005. Lemon told him he “didn’t do a great job during Katrina,” so people might find him criticizing the government now as ironic.
Brown said, “Better to speak to the systemic problems we have inside the government when we see these kinds of issues arise, Don.” He only briefly addressed Katrina, keeping the focus on government incompetence in general.
He also said it’s a bad idea for anyone to be “comparing one disaster to another.”
The last time the right wing decided to dub something "Obama's Katrina" prior to the Ebola response was this summer, when the unaccompanied minors coming in from South America was the issue they were fearmongering over.
The Washington Post's Jaime Fuller compiled a list at about that same time with the 19 things that conservatives were calling "Obama's Katrina moment." It seems we're now up to 20.
- The BP Oil Spill
- The NSA Leaks
- Swine Flu
- The Fort Hood Shooting
- The AIG Bonuses
- The Economy
- Obamacare
- Syria
- Unemployment
- Haiti
- Undocumented Immigrants
- Low Approval Ratings
- Housing Policy
- The Bank Bailout
- Hurricane Sandy
- Propane Shortages in the Midwest
- All of the Scandals
- Everything
- Dad Jeans
And for anyone who needs a little reminder of how conservatives reacted back in 2004 when George W. Bush appointed someone with no medical background to be the bird flu czar, here's The Young Turks' take on it.
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