Friends in High Places

(9/26/05) 6:44 p.m. (CBS) — CBS News correspondent Gloria Borger reports that Michael Brown, who recently resigned as the head of the FEMA, has been rehired by the agency as a consultant to evaluate its response following Hurricane Katrina.

Ok, I really don't like to get political (which is actually the subject of a letter we'll be talking about next week), but this one caught my eye, and I just couldn't let this go.
Obviously, it pays to have friends in high places. Seriously. A former Arabian horse man (fired) who blew the response to the hurricane is back to evaluate its reponse. Huh? That's insane, folks. Imagine an operation is screwed up, and the patient dies. The doctors and nurses involved have the blame put on them, and the lead doctor resigns saying, "I made mistakes, sorry." Now, the hospital brings that doctor back and says, "We want to know where we went wrong. We would like you to come back as a consultant and tell us where the operation went well...and where mistakes were made."
Folks, there's no way that doctor, nor Mike Brown, can actually do that job objectively. He was INVOLVED in the mistakes. What's he going to say? "Well, I find that the National Guard worked really hard at evacuating survivors, but my indecisions kind of hampered everything."
Hell, he's already said that it wasn't him, it was all the local goverment. In fact, he, "told the president 'this is going to be bad one,' before the storm hit."
Seriously, this situation shows it pays to have friends in high places. Seriously, doesn't Bush know anyone else who is more qualified for this? Ask Jeb if necessary. Brown had no qualifications for the job, but now he's back at FEMA. You think the people of New Orleans are happy to hear that?
Brown isn't the only one, however. Dennis Kozlowski, the former Tyco schmuck (and I can't be objective about him, because he stole millions and showed no remorse for it) was told that a few companies want to hire him when he gets out. What? This man committed some serious ethical violations of business...and he can have another job doing the same thing? What happens if he does it again? "We didn't see it coming."
If you're friends with a person in a high place (a mayor, a political figure, etc.) more often than not, you'll have a bone thrown your way when you're in trouble.
Let me make something EXTREMELY CLEAR to anyone who reads this: I am not sitting here and attacking Republicans/Conservatives. I understand that the same thing happens with Democrats/Liberals too (Yes, I remember Marc Rich), but bringing Brown in to look over FEMA when he was part of the screw-up is insane. If he's just answering questions about what he did, that's one thing, but if he's supposed to pass judgement on where the agency screwed up, then he better be on that list.
Then again what do I know? I'm the guy who said that Kennedy needed fewer agents watching him, watched him get shot, was fired, and then was brought back in to figure out where we went wrong. I could be wrong.