Michael D. Brown became the face of failure of the Bush Administration, the state and local governments of Louisiana to act fast, decisively and wisely in the face of Hurricane Katrina, a natural disaster beyond anyone’s comprehension.
Offered up as a sacrificial lamb by those seeking to blame a president who made it easy to be criticized, Mike Brown took his lumps humbly, and walked away to a new life. Today, he has his own talk radio program, a new book coming out and is on the boards of several companies. Mike has taken the lemons and made pitchers full of lemonade for himself and his family.
Time Magazine pays tribute to a man who “became famous overnight for the explosive public issues [he] represented. Caught up in forces larger than [him], [he] gave a human face to [a] confounding situation.” Read about one of Time’s Six “Face of the Decade”.
Michael Brown
THEN: President George W. Bush’s appraisal of his performance in 2005 as head of the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina — “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job” — became a catchphrase for federal incompetence.
(Watch a video of Michael Brown discussing the lessons learned from the catastrophe.)
NOW: Brown hosts a talk-radio show on Denver’s KOA and is writing a book on crisis management. His take on the post-Katrina mess: “The chain of command began to break down … And I had to go around that to get to the White House to try to get things done.”
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