The Honorable Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), appeared before a hostile Senate oversight committee on Wednesday February 15 to answer questions about DHS performance related to Hurricane Katrina. It wasn't pretty.

Sen. Susan Collins opened with a list of failings you can be sure will be in the report and invited Chertoff to respond. His carefully worded answers were logical but unsatisfying. In his opening statement he emphasized the size of the disaster and pointed out the unprecedented successes of DHS (Coast Guard and FEMA) in search and rescue. He commented on the newness of DHS and the difficulty in building a common culture in such an organization.

Questioned closely as to why he didn't know that the levees had breached on Monday he pointed to conflicting reports, inappropriate communications and lack of integration within DHS. He commented that his HSOC under Gen. Broderick provided him with a positive report at 6pm that the levees had not breached. (Why did this occur in the face of so many conflicting emails and messages?) Gen Broderick had previously testified that he was aware of unconfirmed and conflicting reports but did not forward them until he determined the "Truth on the Ground" on Tuesday morning.

Chertoff suggested that he has taken measures to assure that in the future he is informed earlier with less perfect information but I was not convinced by his testimony that he is pursuing this problem to a complete solution. Sen. Leiberman suggested Chertoff ought to be furious over this failing. I saw no evidence of fury. Gen. Broderick had seemed somewhat contrite when he admitted that he was the bottleneck, but he still felt he had done the right thing in confirming facts before forwarding information.

Secy. Chertoff admitted faults in preparation and execution, explaining that he put his faith in the "Hurricane Experts" over at FEMA. He blamed Michael Brown but not solely. He explained that the government will do better in the future with a better logistics system and a better integrated DHS. He did not answer comments about ongoing problems including the inability to provide timely relief, and avoid massive waste and fraud. One senator asked that the next natural disaster not be followed by a financial disaster.

His testimony seemed to me so much like what I have heard from the Corps of Engineers about the levee failures. First an effort to deflect blame, then under intense questioning supported by conflicting evidence comes the recognition that there were problems. Then an unsupported assertion is made that all available remedies have been and  are being pursued. This approach works well in this investigation format where the senators are time constrained and each wants to make a speech of their own.

In neither case (DHS or USACE) do I trust that the agency involved is actually doing all that it can to dig out the problem and solve it.