DHS: Dissembling Office of Hokey Superficialities

This little opinion by The Times-Picayune isn't being mentioned prominently anywhere else, but should be:

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff shouldn't have any trouble discrediting notes that quote him as saying that post-Katrina changes in FEMA are just a ploy to make people think the agency is improving.

All he has to do is make sure that the Federal Emergency Management Agency actually becomes more efficient and responsive.

The notes are being circulated by the president of the American Federation of Government Employees local, which represents workers at FEMA headquarters. They were taken by an unidentified FEMA official who is supposed to have jotted them down during the past week in a meeting with Chertoff.

The source, then, is murky, and Mr. Chertoff's spokesman has strongly denied that his boss made the comments quoted in the notes.

But there should be an effort to find out whether the notes are bogus or not. If Mr. Chertoff or anyone else with Homeland Security or FEMA said that changes are "a perception ploy to make outsiders feel like we've actually made changes for the better" that should be grounds for termination.

The bungled response to Hurricane Katrina demands true reform, and that's the only thing that will make anyone feel better.