Anne K. Block, an attorney who lives and practices in Gold Bar, has posted a comment on David Goldstein’s blog, Horsesass.org, comparing Snohomish County’s director of emergency services to President George W. Bush’s disastrous appointment to FEMA of the incompetent “Brownie” of Katrina infamy (as in “you’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie!”).
Goldstein scooped the MSM and won national attention for his blog with his Brownie expose. Block suggests Goldy undertake a reprise role by doing independent investigative journalism on Aaron Reardon’s appointment of John Pennington to Snohomish County’s top emergency services position. I don’t know Block, and can’t tell you whether she’s onto something or just a disgruntled small-town blogger who likes to fight with local government officials. (She does have a track record of locking horns with such types.)
My own gut feeling is it’s worth some of Goldy’s time to delve into it enough to see if there’s a story there. It might be an opportunity to add another gold star to his journalistic credentials.
Meanwhile, Travis Hots, the 38-year-old fireman who has been chief of a tiny rural volunteer fire district for all of three months, is looking like pure gold. He’s the guy coordinating the Oso rescue efforts and media relations, and he’s doing it so impressively well that his next gig might be Brownie’s old job. This is a story worth telling, too. Meanwhile, the White House will have to wait. If the president tries to call Hots now, his answer will be that he’s too busy to talk.