Cheney and Halliburton aside, you're missing an important part of the story, Squirt.

That Michael Brown - the bumbling director of FEMA - got the job as director of the agency because of Allbaugh. Those articles only refer to him as being a lobbyist and hooking Halliburton up. But he was also the man that got his old college buddy - Michael Brown - the job as director of FEMA in 2003.

Check these articles out:

http://business.bostonherald.com/bus...ticleid=100857

http://www.time.com/time/nation/arti...103003,00.html

This ain't just a Republican thing. Political appointees such as these have been a Washington standard for years and years. Whenever a new administration comes along - Rep or Dem - an army of friends and buddies and cronies and political allies and former campaign officials and contributors and such flood Washington to assume political appointment positions. In this particular case, it surely seems to have bitten em in the ass - "them" being the Democrats who didn't bother questioning Brown during his appointment hearings because they play the political appointee game too, and the Republicans for nominating someone for such a critical position who was obviously so underqualified. It's not like this was the Ambassador to Luxembourg. The director of FEMA is invariably gonna have to deal with some pretty intense shit. And this is the guy they threw in there? pft.