Michael Brown, a Bush appointee who will forever be associated with Hurricane Katrina, will teach a law class at the University of Denver next year focused on the Patriot Act.
Brown, who lives in Boulder, said Friday that students are in for a “great learning experience.”
The class will coincide with congressional debate on reauthorizing the Patriot Act, which was passed by Congress after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Brown served in President George W. Bush’s administration as deputy director of the Department of Homeland Security and at various posts at the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
When Katrina hit the the Gulf Coast in 2005 Bush praised his FEMA director, saying “Brownie, you’re doing a heckuva job.”
But the phrase was repeatedly lampooned as Americans watched footage of the disaster in New Orleans.
A liberal blog that reported Brown was teaching the class wrote “Heckuva seminar, Brownie.”
Brown is aware that the phrase is going to follow him for the rest of his life.
“Did I ever think I was going to be in The New York Times obituaries? No,” he said. “But now I will, and the lead will be ‘Brownie, you did a heck of a job.’ “
