Keeping up appearances

This explains why PR is getting more attention than P-eople.

It's not really all that surprising that the officials who run FEMA are stressing that all-important emergency response function: the public relations campaign. As it turns out, that's all they really have experience at doing.

Michael Brown was made the director after he was asked to resign from the International Arabian Horse Association, and the other top officials at FEMA don't exactly have impressive résumés in emergency management either. The Chicago Tribune reported on Wednesday that neither the acting deputy director, Patrick Rhode, nor the acting deputy chief of staff, Brooks Altshuler, came to FEMA with any previous experience in disaster management. Ditto for Scott Morris, the third in command until May.

Mr. Altshuler and Mr. Rhode had worked in the White House's Office of National Advance Operations. Those are the people who decide where the president will stand on stage and which loyal supporters will be permitted into the audience - and how many firefighters will be diverted from rescue duty to surround the president as he patrols the New Orleans airport trying to look busy. Mr. Morris was a press handler with the Bush presidential campaign. Previously, he worked for the company that produced Bush campaign commercials.
...
Political patronage has always been a hallmark of Washington life. But President Bill Clinton appointed political pals at FEMA who actually knew something about disaster management. The former FEMA director James Lee Witt, whose tenure is widely considered a major success, was a friend of Mr. Clinton's when he took office in 1993, but he had run the Arkansas Office of Emergency Services. His top staff came from regional FEMA offices.

This administration doesn't care about results, only the appearance of results. Why else would Paul Bremer and George Tenet receive medals for their runaway incompetence? Why else would the American public be prevented from seeing flag-draped coffins returning from Iraq and Afghanistan? Why else would the government have waited until after a televised memorial for Pat Tillman to tell his family that he was killed by "friendly fire"? Why else was Dick Cheney (FINALLY!) pulled away from mansion shopping on Chesapeake Bay to do photo ops on Lake George?

The list of examples is endless. Feel free to share some of your (least) favorites in the comments section.