Where is FEMA&8217;s favorite whipping boy Michael Brown when they need him?

The former FEMA director would be the perfect scapegoat for the latest gaffe by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, whose agency oversees FEMA, admitted Wednesday the agency is still ill equipped to handle another disaster such as the back-to-back blows of hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

OK, he didn&8217;t say it exactly like that, but it doesn&8217;t take the Wizard of Oz to see behind his curtain.

Two months ago FEMA was short approximately 500 workers &8212; one-fifth its work force. FEMA said not to worry they&8217;d be at 95 percent capacity by mid-May. Then that date was pushed to June 1, the first day of the 2006 hurricane season. Now FEMA has dropped the goal all together.

&8220;We&8217;ve learned that preparation doesn&8217;t begin three days before the hurricane comes but requires months of planning and preparation,&8221; Chertoff said in an article by The Associated Press.

Hmm. For an agency that crumbled during last year&8217;s crises, FEMA appears slow to learn from its mistakes.

If FEMA doesn&8217;t hire enough people, who will the bureaucrats and politicians blame when disaster strikes and the agency falls down again like a house of cards?

They will, no doubt, be looking for Michael Brown&8217;s telephone number.