Cab Fare

I happened to have cab fare on me, and that is how I found myself in a taxi, headed across Chinatown and past the great marble bulk of Union Station, headed for the Heritage Foundation.

The conservative think-tank had decided to issue some recommendations to streamline the Homeland Security Department, and the office decided we should have someone there. I had a twenty in my wallet, and that is how I was chosen.

There was to be a panel with some old war-horses to get the message out. That is how I found myself dismounting from the cab in a light rain, and hurrying into building with the staid façade and the steely ideological core.

I was stuck in the doorway, trying to get into the conference room, when a distinguished man walked up. He had a slightly florid face with prominent jowls that seemed to be slowly melting down from his gray hair. He looked vaguely familiar, and so I stuck out my hand and introduced myself, saying it was a privilege to meet him. He seemed to agree with me, and was courteous, assuming I knew who he was. We talked briefly about spectrum utilization and re-channeling, and important issue, and I disengaged and found a seat in the back.

It didn’t hit me until I was in the chair, which creaked alarmingly. The old fellow was Ed Meese, former Attorney General of the United States and senior advisor to President Reagan. He had been a high official in California , when Reagan was Governor, and came with him to Washington to be one of the inner circle that presided on the conservative revolution. I was impressed, and wished I had realized who he was when I was talking to him.

When the room settled out, a dynamic young man named James Carafano introduced the panel, which was moderated by a young lawyer named Alane Kochens, and anchored by a retired General named William Moore and the emeritus Attorney General, Ed Meese.

Katrina was the issue, of course. While the Administration is once more high-lighting the terrorist threat, we have had a half-dozen major hurricanes and the destruction of an entire section of the Gulf Coast since then, all courtesy of Mother Nature.

It is a delicate matter. Osama would certainly like to hit us again, and kill not 3,000 people, but ten times that, or a hundred. But in the meantime, other things are happening, and we do not seem to be prepared to deal with the sundry acts of God that have been occurring with uncomfortable frequency.

Accordingly, the homeland security community is increasingly adopting an “all hazards” approach to disaster, which is to say, we should be ready for just about anything. As Katrina demonstrated with stark clarity, we are not.

Policy discussions are by definition a little dry, and my stomach growled. The highlight was a gentle disagreement between the General and the Attorney General.

General Moore got to go first, and he said that Katrina was a disaster, and the Federal Government was not equipped to deal wit it. He was of the opinion that most of the response functions should be outsourced to private industry. My ears pricked up at that. The General said that blue tarpaulins My company is not Home Depot, but we might be able to pick up a little of that largesse.

The problem is that the Department has not demonstrated the ability to get out of its own way, much less effectively spend the taxpayer’s money.

That was where Ed Meese was coming from. He clearly had Generals sprinkled on his cornflakes in his day. He cleared his throat and said the Homeland Security Department should establish regional offices to better manage major terrorist attacks or other catastrophes. Senior officials should be appointed to head them, subject to Senate confirmation, and they should report directly to the Secretary.

The General got a chance to address the matter again, and he said FEMA’s existing regional structure, was inadequate during the hurricane and should not now be copied by Homeland Security as a whole. Private contractors would have performed better.

I was hoping the discussion would elevate, perhaps to fisticuffs, but Meese just growled that we should use the unfortunate lessons-learned from Katrina to “correct the deficiencies.” There was no need to start from scratch. Leadership was the key to effective response.

I had to agree with that, though I thought that maybe the best leadership was over at the Home Depot. I took extensive notes, but after it looked like things were not going to get physical, I noted that they dribbled off into something incomprehensible. I must have briefly dozed.

Alane primly wrapped the proceedings up shortly after noon, and I looked at my watch. I had time to get back to the office and work on some expense reports before departing for the meeting at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a liberal counterpart to the Heritage Foundation.

They apparently have a solution to some intelligence policy issues, and were featuring a Congressman from the oversight committee to talk about it.

As I hurried out to hale a cab, I noticed that there were platters of Subway sandwiches. There were turkey subs, like the ones that fellow ate to lose weight, and various other cold-cut varieties. I grabbed one, and wrapped another in a napkin and tucked it in my pocket to eat in the cab. I thought I had enough cab fare to get back, but I would have to watch it.

This is a great town, I thought, walking out to the curb. Who says there is not such thing as a free lunch?

Copyright 2006 Vic Socotra

www.vicsocotra.com

Close Window