2000 Election Revisited

Remember those 2 guys involved in the 2000 election? How'd they do with Hurricane Katrina?

This guy

appointed these guys:

Reversing an eight-year crusade to rid the now-embattled Federal Emegency Management Agency of political patronage, a newly elected George W. Bush in 2001 named two key players in his Florida recount fight to important FEMA posts.

Neither man, Jacksonville attorney Reynold Hoover and Miami lawyer Mark Wallace, had any experience in emergency management before they were named by the Bush administration to FEMA.

Hoover, a longtime "explosives expert" with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms who became a lawyer in 1996, is still with FEMA as its director of national security coordination. Wallace left the Bush administration in 2004 to become deputy manager of the president's re-election campaign, and is now a lobbyist.

They are two more names to add to the list of political appointees and out-and-out hacks at FEMA. Many are calling for the firing of agency chief Michael Brown, the ousted head of a horse association who was hired at FEMA in 2001 along with his college roommate, top Bush advisor Joe Allbaugh. And it was reported yesterday that FEMA's No. 2 and No. 3 officials, Patrick Rhode and Scott Morris, are also former campaign aides.

Consider this quote:

"FEMA is widely viewed as a 'dumping ground,' a turkey farm, if you will, where large numbers of positions exist that can be conveniently and quietly filled by political appointment," the preliminary report said. "This has led to a situation where top officials, having little or no experience in disaster or emergency management, are creating substantial morale problems among careerists and professionals. "

Then there's the other guy:

Al Gore, private citizen with, certainly, a certain clout, began an initiative on Thursday, September 1st. He personally and privately rented an American Airlines jet and crew, got a doctor friend of his and several nurses, and on Saturday morning, he flew to Louis Armstrong airport in New Orleans, gathered up 140 elderly and ill people from the triage center there and flew them to the Knoxville, Tennessee airport. They were met by relief workers who unloaded the plane and took the people to area hospitals which were on alert and ready to welcome the people. After being checked out, those who were able were taken to a Red Cross shelter set up at a local church. Mr. Gore and his doctor had intended to make a second trip on Saturday, but the undertaking - the loading on and the loading off took several hours each, and by the time he could go back to N.O., it was getting dark and, of course, there are no landing lights at the airport in N.O. Sunday, they flew to Dallas and collected another planeload of refugees and brought them to Chattanooga. That's as far as my information goes. I only know this because the local paper was at the Knoxville airport and got pictures of the people and Mr. Gore moving among them, helping them off the plane. His doctor spoke briefly to the local press, saying, "Al called and asked for help. So here I am."