America loves a good comeback. (How else do you explain Martha Stewart landing two television shows after a prison stint?) Yet with the Gulf Coast still wringing out its cities, it seems premature and a bit crass for former FEMA director Michael Brown to set up shop as a disaster-management consultant.
Brown has formed a firm to help would-be clients avoid the very pitfalls that torpedoed his career at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to the Rocky Mountain News.
Brownie, as he was affectionately referred to by President Bush, expects to hang his shingle in the Longmont-Boulder area. He told the News: “I think people are curious: ‘My gosh, what was it like? The media just really beat you up. You made mistakes. I don’t want to be in that situation. How do I avoid that?”‘
Hopefully his advice to clients will be more valuable than that offered to him by his press secretary as New Orleans was under water. “Please roll up the sleeves of your shirts … all shirts,” she warned him in an e-mail. “Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this crises and on TV you just need to look more hard-working … ROLL UP THE SLEEVES.”
If only Brownie had a disaster-management consultant who could have told him he needed to do so much more than just roll up his sleeves.
