A Bush Loyalist Tackles Katrina Recovery

[DoYouEverWonder]

November 21, 2005

As he takes charge of rebuilding the Gulf Coast after the nation's most costly natural disaster, Donald E. Powell, federal coordinator of Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, makes two points clear: Part of his job is being tough enough to say no -- and when he does so, he speaks for President Bush.

In an interview last week, for example, the former chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation contradicted an assertion by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D) that he had committed the Bush administration to local leaders' $20 billion priority, strengthening the New Orleans levee system to withstand a Category 5 hurricane instead of the current Category 3.

"He was pretty clear about it," Blanco said.

But Powell, 64, a tall, low-key Texan who wears a cattleman's belt with a lone star under his suit, demurred. "The commitment is to build the levees back to a three . . . and then to study the five."

"My accountability is to the president," he added later. "I report to the president."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/20/AR2005112001020.html?nav=rss_business/government

Ah just what we need, another Bush loyalist in charge with no emergency or recovery management experience.

[OneBlueSky]

1. this whole operation is like the mafia . . .

they just farm out the assignments to family members who have proven their loyalty . . . whether they're qualified for the job is obviously irrelevant . . .

[Oversea Visitor]

2. Very Good

So you expecting no more cat 5 ??????

[fearnobush]

3. This is what he really looks like. Pic

<>

[SleeplessinSoCal]

4. Let them drone on.....

Every time these people opens their mouths they sound like callous, greedy bastards - which is exactly what they are.

[BJW]

5. But Wait. Wasn't Bush Taking Personal Responsibility...

or was it Karl that was supposed to be in charge?

[DoYouEverWonder]

6. Last I had heard Rove was the Disaster Csar

I guess he's just managing a different disaster at the moment, his own life.

[Al-CIAda]

7. Oh, fuck...I cannot believe this shit is being allowed to happen.

More cronyism and lies from the WH...and they have the nerve to accuse the local politicians of being crooked.

[UpInArms]

8. here's what Donald Powell is:

http://www.tpj.org/docs/pioneers/pioneers_view.jsp?id=173

Donald Powell was President and CEO of First National Bank of Amarillo before President George W. Bush tapped him to chair the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) in 2001. On Powell’s watch in 2004, the FDIC hired a public affairs director with impressive damage-control experience: Tyco International’s former corporate relations vice president Judith Czelusniak. At the time of this hire, Tyco executives were facing charges of looting $600 million from the company, which spent almost $289,380 a year to provide Czelusniak with housing and parking in both New York and Florida. Not surprisingly, the first public-relations challenge Czelusniak faced at the FDIC was herself. When media got wind of it, Powell—perhaps coached by Czelusniak—said, “We’re not going to comment on that.” Shortly thereafter, the agency announced that Czelusniak had decided to turn down the staff job to be an FDIC consultant instead. Powell received an earlier job assignment from Bush. As governor, Bush appointed him to head the Texas A&M University regents. Powell blocked a 1996 plan for the technical-oriented school to start a humanities center. “We want to ensure that research dollars aren’t used to persuade or encourage questioning certain events or our perspective of history,” Powell said. Powell supported the regents’ decision to make the George Bush School of Government, where he sat on the advisory board, independent of A&M’s liberal arts program. Some faculty members protested the decision, arguing that removing the school from broader academic oversight might turn it into a retirement home for ex-politicians. Powell has served on the board of the Texas Cattle Feeders Association. Its ex-director, Pioneer Teel Bivins, helped cripple state environmental protections against animal fecal pollution, thereby rolling out the brown carpet that turned the Texas Panhandle into a capital of corporate hog farming.

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