|
Do we really have to do this? Shall I point out the legions of crooked scum George W. Bush tried to appoint?
| quote: |
Bush Political Appointees: Criminals and Incompetents Glorified (Part II)
By Rawlein Soberano
In less than four weeks, the Bush administration will be history. Like Hurricane Katrina, it left along its wake some of the bitterest memories that Americans will remember on the level of the Great Depression of 1929 for the sufferings it caused the American people. At first glance, it is not difficult to figure out why and how did this come about. If those appointees can be described in one line—they are the glorification of criminality and incompetence. “Nemo dat quod non habet.” (Nobody can give what he doesn’t have!) That was another reason for the failure of the administration. You cannot run a successful organization when the players are short of talent and/or experience. They were big talkers who thought the “good life” was going to be around indefinitely; they acted like they were above the law and would never get caught or discovered.
Many were convicted, jailed, fined or had to do community service. All were disgraced; up on a pedestal one day and down in the gutter the next. Their actions tarnished the administration and the Republican Party and drove away many Republicans or killed their enthusiasm to remain active after they felt betrayed. They sent a message of unstoppable greed, rugged individualism of each man for himself, shameful selfishness of “give me, give me” culture but reluctant to pay their fair share of taxes for public services received, and demonization of social conscience and civic responsibility. For our purposes, they will be classified into 3 groups: a) indicted/ convicted/pled guilty; b) resigned due to investigation, pending investigation or allegations of impropriety; c) nomination failed due to scandal.
The list does not include the convicted or resigned GOP lawmakers, like Bob Ney of OH, Randy “Duke” Cunningham of CA, Mark Foley of FL, Larry Craig of ID, and Vito Fosella of NY. It covers only those who were appointed. Their boss (GWB) and their own performance have earned them the moniker of loser, stupid, liar, crooked or all of the above. Among this first group (indicted, convicted or pled guilty), we have Eric Andell, Deputy Undersecretary of Office of Safe & Drug-Free Schools at the White House; Claude Allen, Asst. to Pres for Domestic Policy; Brian Doyle, Deputy Press secretary at DHS; Steven Griles, Deputy Secretary at DOI; John T. Korsmo, chair of Federal Housing Finance Board; Scooter Libby, chief of staff to VP Cheney; David Safavian, head of Office of Federal Procurement Policy at OMB; Robert Stein, comptroller of Coalition Provisional Authority in al-Hillah, Iraq; Roger Stilwell, Desk Officer at DOI; Lester Crawford, FDA Commissioner; Felipe Sixto, Special Asst. to President for intergovernmental affairs.
In the second group (resigned due to investigation, pending investigation, or allegations of impropriety), we have Philip Conery, chief of staff, White House counsel on Environmental Quality; George Deutch, press aide at NASA; Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, 3rd highest official at CIA; Alberto Gonzales, Attorney-General; Monica Goodling (mentioned in Part I); Michele Larson Korsmo, deputy chief of staff at DOI; Howard “Cookie” Krongard, State IG; Julie MacDonald (mentioned in Part I); Paul McNulty, deputy to Alberto Gonzales; Richard Perle, chair of Defense Policy Board; Susan Ralston, Asst. to Karl Rove; Janet Rehnquist IG at HHS; James Roche, secretary of Air Force; Kyle Sampson, chief of staff to Alberto Gonzales; Joseph Schmitz, IG DOD; Bradley Schlognan, DOJ; Thomas Scully, administrator of Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services; David Smith, Deputy Asst. Secretary for fish, wildlife & parks at DOI, John Tanner, chief of Voting Rights Section at DOJ; Sara Taylor, Deputy Asst. to President & Director of Political Affairs at White House; Ken Tomlinson, Board chair, Corporation of Public Broadcasting; Lurita Doan, GSA administrator; Alphonso Jackson, HUD secretary; Stewart Bowen, IG for Iraq Reconstruction; Carl Truscott, Director of ATF; and Paul Wolfowitz, Undersecretary at DOD and World Bank president.
Among the third group (nomination failed due to scandal), we have the following—Linda Chavez, nominated to be secretary of Labor but withdrew her name in Jan.’01; Timothy Flanigan, nominated for Deputy Attorney-General but withdrew in Oct. ’05; Bernard Kerik, named secretary of DHS, withdrew his name amidst a host of corruption allegations; William Mercer, Assoc. Deputy Attorney-General and US Attorney of MT withdrew his name from consideration to #3 job at DOJ; and Hans von Spakovsky, commissioner at FEC, nomination failed from work at DOJ to suppress minority voter turnout.
This is not the first chain of scandals that afflicted a Republican administration. From Richard Nixon and the break-in into the DNC at the Watergate hotel which ultimately resulted in the resignation of the president, to Ronald Reagan’s Iran-Contra scandals, saying one thing and doing another, which almost brought the president down as well, and this time around another American president’s reputation is tarnished by the malfeasance of his political appointees. Most of them were stationed in 4 agencies, e.g., White House, DOJ, DOI and DOD. When investigations focused on them, they either resigned or stepped down, but many did not face jail time for what they did. If they did a better job in their investigation to include, Energy, Treasury, MBDA, USDA, State, GSA, DOT, FDA, DOL, to mention some of them, there would have been more convictions or resignations.
RGS/AABR (12-30-08) |
SOURCE
So please, I think Obama's accomplished at least some change in that we aren't hearing about dozens of crooks, only a handful, which is to be expected given a whole lot of politicians are probably not the most moral people at all.
|
