What's Brown and smells like cronyism?

[unixronin]

Gee, funny you should ask that....

When Brown left the IAHA four years ago, he was, among other things, a failed former lawyer -- a man with a 20-year-old degree from a semi-accredited law school who hadn't attempted to practice law in a serious way in nearly 15 years and who had just been forced out of his job in the wake of charges of impropriety.  At this point in his life, returning to his long-abandoned legal career would have been very difficult in the competitive Colorado legal market.  Yet, within months of leaving the IAHA, he was handed one of the top legal positions in the entire federal government: general counsel for a major federal agency.  A year later, he was made its number-two official, and, a year after that, Bush appointed him director of FEMA.

It's bad enough when attorneys are named to government jobs for which their careers, no matter how distinguished, don't qualify them.  But Brown wasn't a distinguished lawyer: He was hardly a lawyer at all.  When he left the IAHA, he was a 47-year-old with a very thin resumé and no job.  Yet he was also what's known in the Mafia as a "connected guy."  That such a person could end up in one of the federal government's most important positions tells you all you need to know about how the Bush administration works -- or, rather, doesn't.

(Registration required; BugMeNot has it covered.)

Update:

ttocs pointed out this Time article on the same subject (no registration required).  Time points out that Brown's resume-padding begins even before he got his J.D in 1981; Brown claims he oversaw the emergency services division for the city of Edmond, Oklahoma from 1975 to 1978, while according to the city of Edmond itself, he was actually an intern in the city manager's office, and from 1977 to 1980, not 1975 to 1977.  He also wrote in his findlaw.com profile that he was an "Outstanding Political Science Professor" at Central State University; University of Central Oklahoma (formerly Central State University) University Relations, however, says that he was never a professor there at all, just a student.

As for the honor of "Outstanding Political Science Professor," Johnson says, "I spoke with the department chair yesterday and he's not aware of it."  Johnson could not confirm that Brown made the Dean's list or was an "Outstanding Political Science Senior," as is stated on his online profile.

Brown also claims that "from 1983 to the present he has been director of the Oklahoma Christian Home, a nursing home in Edmond."  Unfortunately, the Oklahoma Christian Home has never heard of him.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that Nicol Andrews, deputy strategic director in FEMA's office of public affairs, is spinning the claims frantically.  Unfortunately for Andrews, most of the "spun" versions are proving to be false too.  With any luck, when Brown is inevitably (one hopes) fired from his post as FEMA Director, Andrews will be fired along with him.

Comments

[ttocs.livejournal.com]

For a not-as left leaning report
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1103003,00.html?cnn=yes

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Thanks. That actually largely covers the period before the New Republic article, so it extends the scope nicely.