Robert Gibbs is one of those guys who has a way of delivering a left hook straight to the jaw while speaking softly with a wide smile. He's in rare form here, in response to FOX News' Wendell Goler's wide-eyed question about whether the oil disaster in the Gulf is Obama's Katrina.

Q As for critics who are calling this your Katrina, is there -- President Obama’s Katrina --

MR. GIBBS: Can I say this -- I watched FOX yesterday.

Q I really didn’t want you to go there. (Laughter.)

MR. GIBBS: But you sort of -- you opened both the double doors and voila, here I am. (Laughter.)

Q But it wasn’t just FOX calling this your Katrina.

MR. GIBBS: No, no, but FOX had the very special and unique interview with Michael Brown -- you opened it and I had to do it -- who for those who weren’t let in on the big secret, Mr. Brown, FEMA Director Brown under Katrina, intimated on FOX, and it wasn’t -- I will editorially say, didn’t appear to be pushed back on real hard -- that this spill was leaked on purpose in order for us to walk back our environmental and drilling decisions, and that the leak that we did on purpose got out of control and now is too big to contain.

So suffice to say, Wendell --

Q What is his attribution? What is his -- Mr. Brown’s attribution?

MR. GIBBS: I can only wish that the network that you work for had asked that prior to interviewing him yesterday.

Q But reporters in here asked that.

MR. GIBBS: Well, you should --

Q So I’m asking you --

MR. GIBBS: You should call headquarters, my friend, and --

Q I’m asking you --

MR. GIBBS: -- ask for somebody who makes the decisions to put people like that -- because I got to tell you, Wendell, I’m not entirely sure that a factual answer that I might give to any one of your questions is going to change the notion that your network put out the former FEMA director to make an accusation that the well had been purposely set off in order to change an offshore drilling decision.

Q Nor would that affect the reporting I do.

MR. GIBBS: I didn’t intimate that it did. Again, I would -- you and Major should --

Q If we can, let’s move on from it.

MR. GIBBS: You could get on a conference call and maybe do some work. Go ahead.

While I'm certain it was lost on the hapless Wendell Goler, it was a delicious moment for me. In one short, clipped response Gibbs let everyone in the room know exactly how stupid those FOX News reporters are, with a crinkly little grin and a wink. Well done.

(h/t Daily Kos)

Harry Reid spoke yesterday about the "culture of corruption" that is pervasive in the republican party yesterday.

Download | play -WMP low res Download | play -QT (links fixed)

He lists Delay, Frist, Scooter, Safavian, and the K Street Project as his examples. He bangs on Santorum as the new reformer saying. "it's like putting Brownie back in charge of FEMA."

I hear they showed an e-mail telling that Brownie was too busy having dinner to help the people at the Superdome.

(Update): I got the video. Thanks for the fast response everybody. It will be posted tomorrow. Shocking!

Ex-FEMA Administrator Michael Brown seems to be doing for his career what he did for the beleaguered agency. Less than a week after FEMA's dismal Hurricane Katrina response forced Brown out of the agency, he has been shopping his resume to headhunters and Washington PR firms. And it's not working. "He's radioactive," said one exec. An ally of Brownie in the PR world said he should have waited a month before starting his job hunt. "It's just a bad play."..(hat tip MPetrelis)

I'd say NOLA is pretty radioactive too. I'm sure there are plenty of horse stables looking for help MR. Brown.

Brownie is Back

I've been told that Michael Brown has been rehired by FEMA as a consultant to evaluate it's response following Hurricane Katrina via Bob Shieffer and CBS News.

You can't keep a good crony down.

Brownie goes to Congress

He lies his ass off and has his council present. If he had nothing to hide then why the lawyer? Yea-I know it's standard practice. They sure like lawyers now.

Download | play -WMP

PBS supplied the highlights...

Digby caught this and it's very interesting:

Brownie disses the teabaggers:

Brown said his model for governing would be McCain, who would also be the first appointment in a packed schedule of meetings that morning. "I have great respect for Senator McCain," he said of the Arizona senator, who was one of the first establishment players to support his seemingly quixotic bid against Attorney General Martha Coakley. "I've known him for a while, long before this, and you know he is a war hero and kind of a maverick independent thinker. While I want to be a Scott Brown Republican, I want to rely on everybody on both sides of the aisle," he added, "I've told my leadership already that I'm not a rubber stamp for anybody."

And Brown expressed reluctance to be associated at all with the Tea Party movement that helped elect him.

"There may be members of a certain group that supported me," he said, "but I had supporters from every walk of life. And to focus on one specific group is a disservice to the campaign -- it's inclusiveness in making sure that everyone has a voice."

And I don't know what this is about, but it's creepy:

Asked about Glenn Beck's suggestion on his radio show that Brown be fitted with a chastity belt before "it could end up with a dead intern," Brown said, "You know, name calling and all that stuff? I'm way past that. My daughters know that I love them and there is nothing in the world I wouldn't do for them."

The teabaggers were endowed by their creator, FoxNews, to support Brown and there is no underestimating how much they had to do with it. It will be very interesting to see how they react to being publicly dismissed. If they take it, we'll know that they are just the typical Republican base falling into line. If not --- well, then the GOP has a problem if they take the Scott Brown attitude. They hate McCain.

Scott Brown is playing possum with his Tea Party stance because he knows they were really, really behind him and without the support of the Right Wing Noise Machine that is backing the teabaggers, he wouldn't have had a chance to win.