Obama's FEMA Nominee to Appear in NOLA: Political?

The White House announced today that Craig Fugate, director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management, will be President Obama's nominee as FEMA director, and that he'll appear tomorrow in New Orleans with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. While sending the new FEMA nominee to NOLA may be a show of nonpolitical support for the city as it continues to move on from Katrina, it will inevitably conjure images, for some, of Michael Brown and the disaster of 2005, and, intended or not, the political significance of tomorrow's event is unmistakable.

For several years, President Bush's critics have cited Hurricane Katrina as a main charge to be leveled at Bush's presidency--a point many will likely recall in New Orleans and elsewhere when Fugate appears tomorrow. Obama has repudiated Bush aggressively and repeatedly during his first month and a half in office, as Ron Brownstein noted earlier this week; tomorrow's event may have the impact of yet another repudiation, regardless of whether it's a political event per se.