Uhhh, Let Me Get Back To You On That

NYTimes (04.02.06):

"The calls went out across the nation, as Bush administration officials asked the country's most seasoned disaster response experts to consider the job of a lifetime: FEMA director. But again and again, the response over the past several months was the same: 'No thanks.'" FEMA Calls, but Top Job Is Tough Sell

"Unconvinced that the administration is serious about fixing the Federal Emergency Management Agency or that there is enough time to get it done before President Bush's second term ends, seven of these candidates for director or another top FEMA job said in interviews that they had pulled themselves out of the running." Now the Administration is thinking of nominating Acting Director R. David Paulison, who's been filling in for the last seven months since Brownie took a powder. "'To a lot of people that would be an insult,' said Craig Fugate, the top emergency management official in Florida, who said he also had been interviewed but then withdrew his name. 'They have been publicly out looking at how many different names, and everyone turned it down and they come back and ask you?'" "Today, of the 30 most senior jobs, 11 are filled by officials appointed on an acting basis, including the administrators in charge of such critical functions as operations, disaster recovery and disaster response." Feeling safer yet?