At FEMA Your IQ Must Be Below This Line

(CBS)  Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.

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The last time I was at Disney World, they had sticks of a certain height stuck in the ground with signs that said something like: "You must be this tall to ride this ride."

FEMA, the disaster relief agency, must use a variation of that to hire its public relations staff.

Somewhere on their employment application form there must be a clause that says "Your IQ must be below a certain level to work here."

How else to explain FEMA's action last week when it staged a phony news conference where its employees posed as reporters and threw softball questions to agency leaders so they could tell us what a good job they were doing at the California fires?

Mind you, this is the same FEMA once headed by Michael Brown - he of "Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job" fame - that fell on its face during Katrina. While New Orleans drowned, Brownie's PR people busied themselves by E-mailing Brownie to roll up his sleeves before TV interviews so it would look like he was working hard.

Department of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff said he found the phony news conference offensive, and, since it is an emergency relief outfit, I have some emergency suggestions for him.

Fire these people and the people who hired them and then explain to the new people that the best way for a disaster relief agency to get good publicity is to do a good job helping disaster victims.

As part of a massive new PR campaign you might even consider taking the PR staff from behind their desks and sending them to deliver food and water to the fire victims.

Now that would make a great story.

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E-mail Face the Nation.
By Bob Schieffer

[greybeardvet]

Good comments by Bob Schieffer. Very welcome coming from a main-stream commentator not known for radical positions. Certainly, he is no Bill Moyers, and he should have more accurately placed the blame on Bush and Chertoff rather than the lowly jackoffs that did the interview. Still, it is a welcome development for CBS to be showing a bit of honest anger over something that the criminals in the Administration have done.

[ramos937]

Let''s quit trashing FEMA. This sordid affair was staged by the Director of PA who not only is not employed at FEMA anymore but lost the lucrative job he was going to as a result of this affair. The employees participating were all handed letters of reprimand which go into their personnel jackets. Everybody has a right to be stupid now and then.

[godseyesore-2009]

lajes62, are you a total idiot?
You definitely need to get out of your cave for a just a little while each day.
Schieffer is one of the most rational comentators in the media.

[emh1701]

"I think its time to reconstruct this organization."

Forget the organization, reconstruct America instead.

[inventagod]

FEMA is now the US-based muscle for Bu$h.
The group has degenerated from a civilian service organization to a Pentagon wing of the military. They only serve the president''s wishes.
Recently, they awarded Halliburton''s KBR nearly $400 million to build detention camps here in the USA - WHY?

[jetranger7]

Most of them have their Jobs , not for what they know, but Who they know, maybe from College or else where, the buddy system, or they were a part of a club or soriety, looked good on the Resume/Application anyway ! Ohh he''s OK He''s part of the Club from college hire him, just a bunch of Over-Educated Rich Party Kids riding on the Coat Tails of the BUSH Adminstration ! FIRE them all, Next up, the GAO, and the State Department !!

[lajes62]

Bob Scheiffer (sp) is a pompous, bias, half-wit who should do his job and read the news, not try to make news. After getting rid of Rather, I was surprised that scheiffer is still there giving his opinion that only uneducated people or fools believe.

[bareemperor]

This is not the first time the Bu$h administration has been caught manipulating the press. It won''t be the last time either.

There is no real outrage, though, so they really got away with it. One of these days FEMA will grow up and become a real emergency services organization.... I hope.

[andor3]

scoliosuxs said: "Some government jobs require intelligence and common sense."

Yes there are some very good people in public service and governement jobs. I have worked with many. But sadly the numbers are dwindling. It used to be that an ambitious and talented person could do public service and gain experience in government jobs and having worked for an agency was a plus even though the pay might be a little lower. Unfortunately now government agencies have a bad rep, so for example a few years as a manager for FEMA doesn''t help your career now like it used to. And that attitude is hurting FEMA and agencies when they try to hire people: it is a vicious cycle.

[scoliosuxs]

Please don''t classify all gov''t employees as lazy and incompetent. I worked for the state of La for the federal disability program and no one in our office was lazy or incompetent. The job would not allow you to be either. If you couldn''t hack it you were asked to leave. Some gov''t jobs require intelligence and common sense. Not all public jobs can be done by the private sector, such as disability, too many chances for bias or wrong doing without proper oversight.