Word: chertoff
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...response to Hurricane Katrina, even removing the embattled director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is proving to be a tortured, drawn-out affair. Precisely one week after George W. Bush publicly commended FEMA's Michael Brown for "doing a heck of a job," Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff sent the deer-in-headlights leader back to Washington and put Coast Guard Vice Admiral Thad Allen in charge of relief efforts...
...Chertoff gave up his lifetime appointment as a federal appellate judge six months ago to become the second Secretary of Homeland Security, taking charge of an agency that was created after 9/11 to protect the nation from terrorism. Chertoff lost friends in the attacks, and those close to him say he took the job because he felt a patriotic duty to protect the homeland. FEMA was just 1 of 23 agencies folded into the massive new department, with its 181,000 employees and $40 billion annual budget. DHS aides insist the department has paid as much attention to preparing...
Bush aides say that Chertoff, unlike Brown, doesn't have to worry about losing his job. "He'll gut it out," says a Bush adviser of Chertoff. "He'll definitely do better next time." --By James Carney. With reporting by Mike Allen and Sally B. Donnelly / Washington...
...Chertoff inherited a two-year-old agency that was already dysfunctional-- lampooned for its color-coded terrorism warning system and maligned for its profligate spending on office parties and management bonuses. But he also inherited the National Response Plan, a 426-page report published last December that DHS heralded as "a bold step forward in bringing unity in our response to disasters and terrorist threats and attacks." Outlining detailed lines of authority in the event of calamity, the plan "ensures the seamless integration of the Federal Government when an incident exceeds local and state capability." The plan failed miserably...
...scene out of a Michael Moore mockumentary, he was heading into a long-planned Medicare round table at a local country club, joking that he had "spiced up" his entourage by bringing the First Lady, then noting to the audience that he had phoned Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff from Air Force One. "I said, 'Are you working with the Governor?'" Bush recounted. "He said, 'You bet we are.'" But the President was not talking about the killer storm. He was talking about immigration, and the Governor was Arizona...