Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned, but Michael Brown fiddled with his wardrobe while New Orleans drowned.

As Hurricane Katrina was hitting New Orleans, then-FEMA Director Michael Brown was attending to the crucial details of . . . his wardrobe. E-mails released yesterday included this exchange on the morning of Aug. 29 with Cindy Taylor , FEMA's deputy director of public affairs:

Taylor wrote: "You look fabulous -- and I'm not talking the makeup!"

Brown replied: "I got it at Nordstroms . . . Are you proud of me?" An hour later, he added: "If you look at my lovely FEMA attire you'll really vomit. I am a fashion god."

But the fashion god still needed a tweak. Later that week, press secretary Sharon Worthy instructed Brown to get serious: "In this cris[is] and on TV you need to look more hard working . . . ROLL UP THE SLEEVES."

Man is this guy a tool! He seems like some elitist asshole who does not have any idea what it is like ot go hungry or to fear for your personal safety. He was the worst choice for this position and he just helps to demonstrate George Bush's own difficulty in understanding the complexity of being the leader of this nation.