Incompetent? More loyal to Bush than to the people of the U.S.? Don't mind lying? Apply at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

What exactly is it about the Bush administration that values both incompetents and liars? Well, as has been demonstrated time and time again, it's plain that they value blind loyalty to Junior above competence, and lying to protect and defend the president is richly rewarded.

Brownie is busy compounding his woes and further ruining his already tattered reputation by his absoulutely embarrassing appearance before a house committee yesterday.

Not only was he in deep denial, combative, and attempting to blame everyone but himself (sound familiar? It's the Bush playbook to a tee.) but Brownie was flat out lying under oath. Brownie's doing a heck of a job.
And we all know the threat to our very way of life, democracy, and the American way that lying under oath is. Just ask Henry Hyde. What will we tell the children?

And in case you hadn't heard, it turns out this poor sap who took advantage of a cronie appointment which placed him far, far out of his league and who is now trapped in the culture of the Bush administration which values loyalty to Bush above both competence and the truth, is being "taken care of" by the White House with a plush "consultant" position at the very agency he utterly failed at overseeing.

Even though Brown was not only unqualified but grossly failed in his duty, and even though he was forced out as FEMA head, Bush has hired him back as a "consultant" to the agency at the same taxpayer paid salary of $148,000 a year which he was paid for doing such a woeful job that he was forced to resign. Not bad for basically being in charge of whitewashing your own screw-ups.

But at least this way he won't be tempted to spill the beans on how the Bush administration had systematically gutted FEMA and their involvement and complicity in adding to the disaster in the gulf states.

And in a related piece, Kevin Horrigan of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote this precient column two days ago. But with Bush's proven habit of rewarding incompetence, predicting the future isn't as hard as it seems.

The Boston Globe and LA Times have good reports on the hearings.