Pajama Pundits

From the 'Okay, bring the guilty b*st*rd in and we'll hang him after a fair trial!' files.

No one with a shred of intellectual honesty would attempt to deny that pretty much everyone with responsibility to the people affected by Katrina failed to one extent or another. Brown bears his share, and Congress, in typical fashion, looks to be about to hang him for what's his and scapegoat him for the rest.

Brown is standing up and refusing to accept public crucifixion for things he shouldn't have had to do.
... unfortunately, it won't do him any good.

Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., cautioned against too narrowly assigning blame. "At the end of the day, I suspect that we'll find that government at all levels failed," Davis said.

He pushed Brown on what he and his agency should have done to evacuate New Orleans, restore order and improve communication.

"Those are not FEMA roles," Brown said. "FEMA doesn't evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications."

Ohh, the old 'that's not what we're supposed to do' gambit, it is, Mr. Brown? Just because it's not something your agency is supposed to handle, do NOT think you can escape being pilloried for not handling it anyway!
Doesn't Mr. Brown understand that, regardless his agency's actual mission, people believe it should be all-encompassing, and therefore, he can and will be taken to task for not doing it all, immediately? (we'll leave the debate over 'federal intrusion in state affairs' arguments for another time)

In the end, it seems as if, between Congress and the media, the vast majority of everything that can't be stuck on President Bush, will be hung on Brown.

The two scenarios I, in my cynical mood, see resulting from this are:
a) having smeared Bush and scapegoated Brown, assigning blame to them for,,, well, everything, none of the core failures will be addressed, leaving 'business as usual' just that and setting the Big Easy up for a repeat performance the next time a big storm wanders in.
b) just as bad, 'the people' will come to the conclusion that Uncle is supposed to fix everything, all the time, and Uncle will try to comply.

... but I might be a cynic today.