Two Down, Two To Go

New Orleans Police Chief Eddie "I'm-No-Pennington" Compass "retires."

The announcement came two days after several comments Compass had made repeatedly about the alleged violence that had engulfed emergency shelters at the Superdome and Ernest N. Morial Convention Center were countered by others to be hyperbolic and based on faulty intelligence.

Compass had come under fire for a variety of other reasons after Katrina. At first, he seemed invisible, holed up in the Hyatt Hotel with Nagin and other city leaders. As anarchy threatened to overwhelm the city, cops on the street said they "had no chief."

Compass joins Michael Brown, ex-head of FEMA, as the second official to place "former" in front of his title following a pitiful performance before and after Hurricane Katrina.

Speaking of Brown, the lawyer and horse expert was on Capitol Hill today where members of Congress batted him around like a pinata. But Brown managed to score his own points, pointing out what most of already know.

"My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional," Brown told a special panel set up by House Republican leaders to investigate the catastrophe. Most Democrats, seeking an independent investigation, stayed away to protest what they called an unfair probe of the Republican administration by GOP lawmakers.

"I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences and work together," Brown said. "I just couldn't pull that off."

Take those last comments for what you will, but the former has been true for more than 50 years.