“Transparent Townsend” Candidate for Opaque CIA Director?

Dear President Bush,

CIA chief “We make mistakes” Porter Goss just stepped down after a year and half on the job. Who will take his place? The short list leaked from insiders includes your Homeland Security advisor, Frances Fragos Townsend.

I happened to see her speak on CSPAN last night. As I flipped through the channels there she stood in a red dress talking about her bipartisan approach to public service. Having written you and Mrs. Townsend in regard to the hurricane evacuation of hospital and nursing home patients , I listened intently for any morsels on that very topic. Alas, none come.

However, I was treated to the latest version of "Bush speak" citing the need to eliminate government bureaucracy. It sounded amazingly bureaucratic. Can bureaucratic lingo really eliminate physical bureaucracy?

Frances did highlight several core principles for disaster response. They include transparency, competence and personal responsibility. I found it odd that the report Mrs. Townsend proudly unveiled in February failed to live up to these three ideals, or at least the first two.

The White House Lessons Learned report failed to conduct a competent evaluation of hospital and nursing home patient evacuations. It did not cite the responsible parties, nor did it evaluate their performance in light of those clearly defined duties. Grade F

The report failed the transparency test when it omitted the facility with over 40 patient deaths, 24 of which came in the LifeCare Hospital unit housed in that same building. You and Mrs. Townsend are well aware that the Carlyle Group purchased LifeCare in August 2005, just weeks before Katrina made landfall. The Carlyle Group brags of its insider political connections to the current administration in its press releases. Is your father still doing work for Carlyle? Grade pending as work is incomplete

Obviously Mrs. Townsend can keep a secret, as these facts, this potential conflict of interest within your administration remains unnoticed by the main stream media. Why, I cannot say. It may be too horrific to envision our government failing the sick, the elderly, and their caregivers in a time of extreme crisis. We shudder to think that a competent investigation could be scuttled to aid the legal defense team of insider corporate interests. Worst of all is the thought that it could easily happen again to our parents, friends and loved ones as no concrete plans are visible just weeks before the 2006 hurricane season opens for business.

Yes, Mrs. Townsend, the bipartisan confidant is ready and willing to serve the public interest. From what I have seen to date, I can endorse her appointment to the CIA. Should that provide you an opportunity to promote someone competent to conduct a real investigation would just be icing on the cake. My guess is you have had that opportunity before, so we should expect more of the same …..excess partisanship and incomplete investigations.