Wednesday: President Bush and Michael Brown as Laughingstocks

By Wednesday, September 7, the Katrina response had moved from tragedy to farce. Comedy Central’s fake news anchor Jon Stewart gave voice to pent-up frustration. He opened that evening’s edition of The Daily Show with this: “We begin with the subject of crisis management. After 9/11 New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani emerged as a calm leader, inspiring people with hope. Hurricane Katrina has introduced us to a new breed of public servant, inspiring people—with different feelings.” He continued, “Michael Brown, the Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Brown was nominated to his post by President Bush in 2003, and intends to start the job any day now. Any day now.” He concluded, “Brown has earned widespread scorn and derision for his, let’s say, retarded mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina, and for comments like these last Thursday.” Stewart then played clips of Mr. Brown the prior week admitting that his agency learned about people in the ....³²