Chertoff better not eat in any black-owned restaurants in NOLA. Really, the arrogance of these people is stunning at times. It wouldn’t surprise me if some overworked, low-level FEMA employee just shot him, the next time he got out of a taxpayer funded hookermobile car.

And we’ve got to do a much better job, frankly, of how we manage the process of recovery. We still have tens of thousands of people who suffer the lingering effects of Katrina. And as the city of New Orleans and as the state of Mississippi and the state of Louisiana try to recover and rebuild in what is a mammoth task, we have to make sure that FEMA does not become so enmeshed in its own bureaucratic processes sometimes that they lose sight of the need to have simple common sense and humanity in dealing with the public. So we’re going to have to continue to crack down and make sure we get this job done.

As Scout points out:

Can someone please give Chertoff an organization chart for DHS so we can remind Michael that FEMA is that little box below YOU. Perhaps you should crack down on yourself Mr. Secretary. I have to admit I have some sympathy for the grunts at FEMA. They are poorly led and continually abused, now even by Chertoff. What’s worse however is they are completely misplaced. It is stark and clear that the agency does not belong in DHS.

If you go and read the entire speech you’ll see that Chertoff continues to see the role of DHS as fighting the terrorist threat. The goals he laid out all relate to that end. I suspect that dealing with natural disasters (or man made floods) is nothing more than a nuisance to Chertoff even though there were 50 federal major disaster declarations in 2006 in 33 states. And 2006 was not unique. The average for disaster declarations for the last 10 years is 52 so disasters are a constant risk to many Americans and the need for response is ever present. But under Chertoff’s leadership and DHS structure, FEMA will continue to fail us. FEMA should be removed from DHS now.

Sadly, as Scout notes: Holy Joe is in charge of DHS oversight. So I concur- those diplomats in China right now need to ask the Chinese if we can borrow Mr. Bao for a little while. I suspect he’ll have a tougher time than he did with those dolphins, but I’m confident he can get the job done.