It's unreasonable to expect the Mozilla Board to have the foresight of the community's reaction. There was no large sect upset by Brendan's appointment on political grounds. There were a few squeaky wheels, a few silent ones, and a silent majority that had no problem with it.

Hubris? Nah. They just misjudged the ability of the media and vocal critics to not spin a historical donation as a wildly out of scope controversy for the sake of attention, pageviews, and a misguided sense of social rights.