Michael Brown is a political appointee swamped by a disaster he is incapable of handling. As the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, he doesn’t have the experience or skills necessary to lead the efforts in New Orleans and Mississippi.

President Bush should fire him for his agency’s lack of preparedness, slow reaction and general incompetence in dealing with the effects of Hurricane Katrina. Brown has no business in his current post.

On the Department of Homeland Security’s Web site, there’s a page that outlines the strategic goals of the organization, which includes FEMA.

• Protection: Safeguard our people and their freedoms, critical infrastructure, property and the economy of our nation from acts of terrorism, natural disasters or other emergencies.

• Response: Lead, manage and coordinate the national response to acts of terrorism, natural disasters or other emergencies.

• Recovery: Lead national, state, local and private sector efforts to restore services. and rebuild communities after acts of terrorism, natural disasters or other emergencies.

FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have failed miserably. Brown should head the list of people held accountable for the federal government’s ineptness.

Appearing Sunday on “Meet the Press,” the president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, Aaron Broussard described how FEMA was actually turning away desperately needed help. FEMA was actually disconnecting communications lines and turning away trucks loaded with water and refusing to distribute diesel fuel. He finished with this:

“I want to give you one last story, and I’ll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I’m in, Emergency Management, he’s responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home, and every day she called him and said, Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?’ and he said, Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you.’ Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing] Nobody’s coming to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody’s promised. They’ve had press conferences. I’m sick of the press conferences. For God’s sakes, just shut up and send us somebody.”

Brown, a lawyer from Oklahoma, came to FEMA with no experience that would qualify him to manage the federal agency most directly responsible for responding to disasters. He is a lawyer and politician, who replaced his former roommate and friend, Joe Allbaugh who left FEMA to start a lobbying firm. While he has ample political connections, he’s not qualified to head a major disaster relief effort, and it has shown. The same could be said for FEMA’s chief of staff, Patrick Rhode, and deputy chief of staff, Scott Morris. Rhode did advance work for the president’s campaign, and Morris worked for the company that made his commercials.

President Bush and Michael Chertoff, head of Homeland Security, share responsibility for Brown’s mismanagement. One step in fixing the problem is to bring in new leadership to take over the recovery effort. There are professionals who understand disaster relief and recover; the country needs one of them running FEMA.