Astonishing? Not so much

It's not astonishing, because it's not at all surprising.

Kevin Drum: "This is truly remarkable. FEMA was a fine organization for eight years under Bill Clinton, widely recognized as one of the best run agencies in the federal government. But after a mere five years of George Bush's stewardship there's now a bipartisan consensus that it's so rundown that the only choice is to get rid of it and build a completely new agency in its place. Astonishing."

Bottom line: According to the hacks that have purposefully destroyed FEMA from the safe confines of the political machine otherwise known as The Department of Homeland Security, there's no place for 2 agencies that have virtually the same mission. The problem? In order to create DHS, they had to coopt FEMA's mission. Essentially making DHS an enormous duplication of other Federal Agency missions, with very little value added, especially when viewed under the lens of 'bang for the taxpayer buck'. Rather than 'dismantle FEMA and build a new Agency', Congress should disband DHS, restore FEMA's independence and authorities (since DHS has shown they can't capably handle the authorities they've coopted from FEMA), require by Executive Order that all Federal Agencies who were absorbed into DHS renew their sense of security awareness but allow them to set their own priorities, and force the administration to accept and appreciate dissenting viewpoints to help them make wise policy decisions (which, frankly, lies at the heart of how this administration has used DHS and fully explains DHS's war on FEMA).