See I told You so
The Federal government is rightly receiving a lot of blame for Katrina reaction in LA. Why? Because the governor and other people on the ground are Democrats. Is it just coincidence that Mississippi and Florida which have also been hit by hurricanes in the last year had as their governors a close friend of the Prez and the Prez's brother?
Is it a coincidence that millions in no-bid contracts were let out before and immediately after the hurricane hit? Is it unusual that these companies had close ties to administration higher ups? Is it unusual that Republicans put cronyism ahead of competance?
The answers are of course, no. Let's not kid ourselves, patronage has been a part of the political landscape for centuries. It took until Garfield was killed, anniversary tomorrow, for the start of reform to happen. However, the civil service bills had no effect on the upper reaches of political offices, these remained appointed by the Prez or Gov, whatever. As long as people help someone get elected, then paybacks will occur and unqualified people will land in jobs they have no right to be in.
Much of the time, these positions are in out of the way jobs where they have no real power or are staffed by individuals who realize that the people who know what they are doing are best left in charge. Except when the individual is a Republican. Does the term tin-pot dictator ring any bells. In Brown's defense, and this is his only one, Chertoff told him that he had responsibility for everything and was left out to dry. He still deserved everything he got.
I long for the days of Republicans in the mold of Nixon, Ford, Bush I, Goldwater, and Rockefeller. They would have had competant people in control because they knew the dangers of having unqualified leaders due to their military experiences. It has been said repeatedly that Bush II has run his presidency using his father's term as an example to avoid. With the cost of Katrina and Iraq, it is sad that he can not follow his father's lead and re-enact fair taxation on those who he cut to pay for the weakest of all of us, didn't Jesus say something similar?
posted by Jon Carroll @ 2:23 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
Patronage may have been a part of the American landscape for a long time, but Bush has raised it to the level of high art!
Interesting stuff. Good to find a fellow Memphian who hates these guys as much as I do.
As always, excellent comments. Before he died, Senator Goldwater told several rightists in Congress that they were not conservatives. Their drive to impose a religious ideology throughout the country made them as harmful in Goldwater's eye as did the folks who wanted massive amounts of government.
Yopur rhetorical not so rhetorical question about the President's favorite political philosopher can be answered simply: yes, in Matthew 25 as he separated the sheep and goats. The goats asked why they were on their way to rather unpleasant circumstances and the Matthean Jesus answered "as you did it to the least of these, you did it unto me." Seems as if the current administration forgot that admonition.
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