Scott Morris Doing a Heckuva Job

Meet Scott Morris. He is the director of Florida Long-Term Recovery for FEMA. His previous claims to fame was working for the Republican National Committee and the campaigns of George W. Bush and Bob Dole. Shockingly, FEMA took Morris's bio off their website. Check the URL www.fema.gov/pdf/about/bios/biomorris.pdf.Fortunately, Think Progress copied the bio.

Mr. Morris was also the marketing director for the world’s leading provider of e-business applications software in California, and worked for Maverick Media in Austin, Texas as a media strategist for the George W. Bush for President primary campaign and the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign.

I don't know about you, but that bio just screams disaster management. Morris is so qualified that FEMA let him and his staff sit on the sidelines.

Sure, Morris and his Lake Mary-based staff of hundreds were just miles from where the tornadoes touched down. But what if they didn't do a good job? All of a sudden, people might start asking why President Bush thought a political operative would do a heckuva job responding to natural disasters.

Was avoiding that potential embarrassment worth all the public money it cost to parachute in new workers and find them places to work and live?

U.S. Rep. Tom Feeney isn't sure what FEMA was thinking. But he doesn't like it. So he's asking questions. And bully for him for doing so.

Morris has over 400 emergency-management workers in central Florida. Why are 150 out-of-state FEMA workers handling the tornado response?