Re: President Bush Makes Another Excellent Nomination To The Supreme Court
- From: "Jack Linthicum" <jacklinthicum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 8 Oct 2005 05:15:55 -0700
D. Spencer Hines wrote:
> Hilarious!
>
> "Conservative" pogues and poguettes, full of righteous anger, are
> running in tight little circles and chasing their tails over the
> nomination of Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court.
>
> They are totally unaware of what fools they are making of themselves.
>
> Great Political Theatre!
>
> D. Spencer Hines
>
> Lux et Veritas et Libertas
>
> Vires et Honor
Hines is quite correct in bringing the concept of fools in this
context. Has anyone read the New Republic's list of the top 15 Hacks in
the Bush administration? I have trimmed much of their 'qualifications
in the interest of keeping the copyright law sacrosanct and for space
reasons. Few in this news group can read and entire page without their
lips getting tired.
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=20051017&s=hacks101705
15: Israel Hernandez
Assistant Secretary for Trade Promotion and Director General of the
United States and Foreign Commercial Service, Department of Commerce
(confirmation pending)
Fresh out of college and seeking a job on George W. Bush's 1994 Texas
gubernatorial campaign, Israel Hernandez showed up an hour early for
his interview with the candidate. Impressed by his punctuality, Bush
hired Hernandez within days and eventually invited him to live with the
Bush family in their Dallas home, where Hernandez reportedly became
like an older brother to Jenna and Barbara Bush.
14: Andrew Maner
Chief Financial Officer, Department of Homeland Security
Andrew Maner comes to his job with unimpeachable credentials--not in
finance or accounting, admittedly, but as a dues-payer in the Bush
family empire. In the first Bush administration, Maner helped to plan
presidential travel and served as a junior press aide.
13: Claire Buchan
Chief of Staff, Department of Commerce
As deputy press secretary at the White House, Claire Buchan gained a
reputation as a kept-in-the-dark spokesbot who was often relegated to
baby-sitting reporters on long trips. But all that changed last spring,
when Buchan was promoted to chief of staff at the Commerce Department,
where she now helps the secretary oversee a $6.3 billion budget and
some 38,000 employees.
12: Paul Hoffman
Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, Department
of the Interior
Paul Hoffman is an avid angler, hunter, skier, and horseman. So it was
only natural to tap this former chief of the Chamber of Commerce in
Cody, Wyoming, (population 9,000) to help run the National Park
Service.
11: Patrick Rhode
Acting Deputy Director Federal Emergency Management Agency
As acting deputy director of FEMA, 36-year-old Patrick Rhode had, until
recently, the unenviable job of backstopping the hapless Michael Brown,
a man who needed much backstopping.
10: Steven Law
Deputy Secretary, Department of Labor
Since 2004, Steven Law has helped run a department with 17,000
employees and an annual budget of over $50 billion. Pretty good for a
guy who started out as a lowly Capitol Hill legislative aide.
9: Hal Stratton
Chairman, Consumer Product Safety Commission
A former state representative and attorney general in New Mexico, Hal
Stratton never asked for his current job, protecting American citizens
from such dangers as lead-laced toy jewelry and flammable Halloween
costumes.
8: Mark McKinnon
Member, Broadcasting Board of Governors (confirmation pending)
The Broadcasting Board of Governors oversees Voice of America and other
U.S. media beamed to the Middle East; and, in the spirit of accurately
representing the United States, it reserves seats for members of both
major political parties.
7: Stewart Simonson
Assistant Secretary for Public Health and Emergency Preparedness,
Department of Health and Human Services
According to his official biography, Stewart Simonson is the Health and
Human Services Department's point man "on matters related to
bioterrorism and other public health emergencies." Hopefully, he has
taken crash courses on smallpox and avian flu, because, prior to
joining HHS in 2001, Simonson's background was not in public health,
but ... public transit.
6: Hector Barreto
Administrator, Small Business Administration
No one can accuse Hector Barreto of being unfamiliar with small
business. His Los Angeles firm, Barreto Insurance & Financial Services
Company, had only ten employees. Alas, now that he is in charge of a
bigger operation--the Small Business Administration (SBA) has over
3,000 employees, a budget of about $600 million, and a portfolio of
loans totaling $45 billion--Barreto is struggling.
5: David Wilkins
American Ambassador to Canada
An unspoken rule dictates that politically appointed ambassadors should
be seen and not heard--or, at the very least, not heard provoking
international incidents with close U.S. allies. But David Wilkins--a
former South Carolina legislator whose chief contribution to world
affairs before this year was raising $200,000 for President Bush's 2004
campaign--is not one to stand on ceremony.
4: Jim Nicholson
Secretary, Department of Veterans Affairs
In contrast to the four most recent VA heads--who had previously held
leadership positions with Disabled American Veterans, the Department of
Defense, a state-level VA department, and VA itself--Jim Nicholson
brings a refreshing lack of experience to veterans' advocacy.
3: Rear Admiral Cristina Beato
Acting Assistant Secretary for Health, Department of Health and Human
Services
In June 2004, Cristina Beato admitted to her hometown newspaper that
she hadn't paid much attention to the details of her resumé. That's
too bad, because those silly little details seem to have stalled her
confirmation for assistant secretary for health for over two years now.
2: John Pennington
Director, Region Ten, Federal Emergency Management Agency
The Pacific Northwest is a catastrophe-prone area-- from tsunamis and
volcanic eruptions in Washington and Oregon to wildfires in Idaho and
oil pipeline ruptures in Alaska. That's why former Washington
Representative Jennifer Dunn knew that FEMA needed "a natural" to head
its disaster response efforts in the region.
1: Harriet Miers
White House Counsel, Nominee for Associate Justice of the Supreme Court
When we started researching this guide to the Bush hackocracy, nobody
was sure who would wind up as number one. Competition was fierce. From
under every bureaucratic rock, out scurried a Bush buddy. But we
endeavored to be fair. There was spirited debate over the nuances
between merely mediocre officials blindly loyal to the president and
those with a demonstrated history of incompetence. (Alas, Andrew Card
wound up on the cutting room floor.) Some argued that, by our own
strict criteria, the president himself should be judged the number-one
hack, but our deference to the wisdom of the electorate kept him off
the list.
.
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