Bush "I'd rather they beat up on him (Brownie) than me or Chertoff."

[Pirate Smile]

Katrina: The 'Scapegoat'

Newsweek

March 27, 2006 issue - The Bush administration maintains top officials were unaware until the next day, but e-mails show that by the late evening of Aug. 29, some policymakers were told the damage to New Orleans might be worse than depicted on TV.In an e-mail to Homeland Deputy Secretary Michael Jackson at 11:05 p.m., Patrick Rhode, a top aide to FEMA chief Michael Brown, reported that a FEMA official in New Orleans had described a 200-yard levee breach near Lake Pontchartrain, that people were being rescued from housetops, that there were "unconfirmed random body sightings" and that 60 percent of the city seemed flooded. Earlier, in an e-mail to Homeland Secretary Michael Chertoff's chief and deputy chief of staff, Brian Besanceney, Chertoff's top media adviser, warned that "unconfirmed" reports from New Orleans "are far more serious than media reports are currently reflecting." Still, Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke insisted to NEWSWEEK his department was receiving "conflicting information." And in the continuing feud between administration supporters and the former FEMA chief, Brown's lawyer accused House GOPers and the White House of making Brown the "designated scapegoat." Brown's lawyer claimed Brown was told that at a Sept. 6 cabinet meeting, President Bush, after being informed the press was attacking Brown, said: "I'd rather they beat up on him than me or Chertoff." The White House had no comment.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11902206/site/newsweek/