Michael Brown - Director of FEMA*, 2003-2005

President Bush infamously saluted the one-time FEMA head with a hearty, "Heckuva job, Brownie," but Brown's thin resume (Arabian horses, anyone?) and dismal response to Hurricane Katrina made him a national whipping boy in the storm's aftermath and a icon of an ineffectual administration.

*Director of FEMA is no longer a Cabinet-level position; the agency was folded into the Department of Homeland Security in 2003.