Genius of the Week: Katrina Anniversary Edition

Hands down, this might be the best way to get anything done in politics these days: impersonate someone important.

The question is: Who is Rene Oswin? For a while, Oswin was an official at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Beside Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, Oswin gave a speech to 1,000 contractors, and said that HUD was reversing their policy on demolition of housing projects.

Only, Oswin was no HUD employee. And what he said had been approved by no one at the department . . .

According to a CNN report, the faux HUD employee said, "Everything is going to change about the way we work, and the change is going to start here today in New Orleans . . . This year, in New Orleans, I'm ashamed to say we have failed." So, the slick talking, policy making liar said,  HUD would not demolish 5,000 units of public housing.

Soon thereafter, HUD had to make an announcement that their policy in fact had not changed at all. A spokesperson said the hoax was bogus and called it, "sick."

The man claiming to be Rene Oswin later said he was Andy Bichlbaum. Why? "We basically go around impersonating bad institutes or institutes doing very bad things . . . That would be HUD. At this moment, they're doing some really bad things."

Genius.

(Image of little yellow guy from flickr.)