September 14, 2011 03:18 PM UTC

I'd hide, but Michael Brown plays Bush's "heck-of-a-job" clip every day on KOA radio show

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• by: Jason Salzman

I don’t think too many people realize it, but Michael Brown is a regular weeknight talk-show host on Denver’s KOA radio.

That’s, Michael Brown of “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job” fame. And Hurricane Katrina fame. That’s not a little bit of fame. It’s a lot.

I mean, he’s easily the most famous media figure in town, when you think about it. Maybe he’s even an historic figure, thanks to W.

But what do you do with fame like that, if you’re Michael Brown?

If I were in his shoes, I’d run from it and be thankful that “Michael Brown” is an utterly generic name that won’t immediately be associated with the phrase, “heck of a job.”

In other words, you could probably move on and avoid your past.

But Brownie acatually plays the clip of Bush delivering the heck-of-a-job line every time he opens his radio show on KOA–and after most commercial breaks. It’s part of his intro, as you can hear here.

It made me wonder, what’s up with Brownie? You recall he was apparently forced to resign in 2005 from his post as Director of FEMA, after the disastrous federal response to Katrina, which was probably the beginning of the end for Bush. In the wake of Katrina, Brown was exposed as a political appointee, without proper qualifications to head FEMA in the first place.

So, is Brownie proud of his claim to fame? Proud of his response and W’s to Katrina? And whether he’s proud or not, why remind people of Bush’s embarrassment by playing the Brownie line over and over again.

I emailed Brownie and got this response:

Brownie: Hello, Jason. I just returned from Seoul and will get you a non-jet lagged response tomorrow.

After he sent this promising missive, I emailed him five times but he never got back to me.

But Brownie’s response to a caller Aug. 29 gives us a hint that he likes listening to the Bush quote every night becaue thinks he did indeed do a heck of a job at FEMA, and he blames the victims. At least that’s what this exchange would have you belive:

Caller: And Katrina, I was actually down there a day before, two days before it happened. I was going through when I was driving cross country. And I went back a week later, or a few days later. You know, it’s hard to feel sorry for people when they were told to leave.

Brown: Bingo! (laughs)

Caller: I just find it difficult, you know, you were told this was going to happen and you wanted to take a chance. Well, you took the chance, and you lost.

Brown: And you lost.

Caller: And why….

Brown: Exactly, you took the chance and you lost. Thanks for the call. I appreciate it.