Head of FEMA has an unlikely background

THE NEWS BLOG: "Head of FEMA has an unlikely backgroundBY MATT STEARNS AND SETH BORENSTEINKnight Ridder NewspapersWASHINGTON - (KRT) - From failed Republican congressional candidate to ousted 'czar' of an Arabian horse association, there was little in Michael D. Brown's background to prepare him for the fury of Hurricane Katrina.But as the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Brown now faces furious criticism of the federal response to the disaster that wiped out New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast. He provoked some of it himself when he conceded that FEMA didn't know that thousands of refugees were trapped at New Orleans' convention center without food or water until officials heard it on the news.'He's done a hell of a job, because I'm not aware of any Arabian horses being killed in this storm,' said Kate Hale, former Miami-Dade emergency management chief. 'The world that this man operated in and the focus of this work does not in any way translate to this. He does not have the experience.'Brown ran for Congress in 1988 and won 27 percent of the vote against Democratic incumbent Glenn English. He spent the 1990s as judges and stewards commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association. His job was to ensure that horse-show judges followed the rules and to investigate allegations against those suspected of cheating.'I wouldn't have regarded his position in the horse industry as a platform to where he is now,' said Tom Connelly, a former association president."