The Legend of Michael Brown

Every time he speaks, the legend grows:

Brown faulted those New Orleans residents who failed to have their own hurricane plan, believing it was the government’s duty to keep them safe.

“The government cannot save you,” he said. “We’ve got to get away from this culture of dependency and go to a culture of preparedness in this country … Every one of us has things we can do in our lives and our businesses to be better prepared.”

And grows…

He criticized Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin for pointing the finger of blame at each other instead of working together to solve the problem.

“I felt like strangling them both,” he said. “I probably should have … In Katrina, I was never able to establish a unified command structure because Louisiana was so dysfunctional and so overwhelmed.”

In fact, the legend has grown to such proportions that Michael Brown himself must refer to the Michael Brown of Katrina in the third person:

After Katrina struck, Brown said, the White House was more interested in political damage control than in actual damage control in New Orleans.

“One of the biggest mistakes Mike Brown made during Katrina was not crumpling up the White House talking points and saying ‘Folks, here’s the truth,’” he said.

This Mike Brown he speaks of. He is a legend in this part of the world.