So liar-slash-FEMA chief Michael Brown has been sent back to D.C. This is being touted as a rare but tacit admission of a Bush mistake. It nay very well be that and I certainly enjoy a little bit of Bush squirming, but let's also remember something else: FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The immediate crisis along the Gulf Coast is over - has been for a while. That's not to say that there are plenty of smaller crises that must be managed over the coming weeks, months, possibly years.

But we're now in a phase that really has nothing to do with the scope of FEMA either before or after the Bush administration gutted it. The fact that Brown has been sent packing isn't the story here; that he hasn't been fired outright is.

This bungling bureaucrat absolutely botched the emergency period of the disaster. He should be held accountable. So should the person who appointed him without adequately verifying that what was on his resume was accurate. Whatever happened to checking referenes? I would never hire a volunteer without checking references; I'm appalled that the person chosen to protect me, you and everyone else wasn't subject to at the same scrutiny I give unpaid interns.