No wonder FEMA is a joke...

Let's not forget that Michael Brown was not the only hack at FEMA -- hackocracy is unfortunately not skin-deep, but runs well into the management ranks of our hobbled federal bureaucracy. Here is number 11, on The New Republic's dishonor role of Bush hacks:

11: Patrick Rhode
Acting Deputy Director Federal Emergency Management Agency

As acting deputy director of FEMA, 36-year-old Patrick Rhode had, until recently, the unenviable job of backstopping the hapless Michael Brown, a man who needed much backstopping. Unfortunately, it's not clear that Rhode is much more qualified than Brown to be managing the nation's worst disasters.

Before joining fema, the biggest disaster he had helped manage was the Small Business Administration (see Hector Barreto) [Barreto made this list too -- coming soon. Neil] --and even that was something of a stretch. Rhode entered federal government in 2001 as deputy director of advance operations for the Bush White House, a job he had also held for Bush's 2000 campaign.

Never fear, though: Rhode has covered disasters--as a TV anchor for local network affiliates in Alabama and Arkansas, in which capacity he developed "an acute interest in what responders do in times of crises."

Perhaps not acute enough.

He recently said that fema's response to Katrina was "probably one of the most efficient and effective responses in the country's history."

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