From Time:

Sunday, Sep. 25, 2005
How Many More Mike Browns Are Out There?
A TIME inquiry finds that at top positions in some vital government agencies, the Bush Administration is putting connections before experience
By MARK THOMPSON, KAREN TUMULTY, MIKE ALLEN / WASHINGTON

In presidential politics, the victor always gets the spoils, and chief among them is the vast warren of offices that make up the federal bureaucracy. Historically, the U.S. public has never paid much attention to the people the President chooses to sit behind those thousands of desks. A benign cronyism is more or less presumed, with old friends and big donors getting comfortable positions and impressive titles, and with few real consequences for the nation.

But then came Michael Brown. When President Bush’s former point man on disasters was discovered to have more expertise about the rules of Arabian horse competition than about the management of a catastrophe, it was a reminder that the competence of government officials who are not household names can have a life or death impact. The Brown debacle has raised pointed questions about whether political connections, not qualifications, have helped an unusually high number of Bush appointees land vitally important jobs in the Federal Government.

The Bush Administration didn’t invent cronyism; John F. Kennedy turned the Justice Department over to his brother, while Bill Clinton gave his most ambitious domestic policy initiative to his wife. Jimmy Carter made his old friend Bert Lance his budget director, only to see him hauled in front of the Senate to answer questions on his past banking practices in Georgia, and George H.W. Bush deposited so many friends at the Commerce Department that the agency was known internally as “Bush Gardens.” The difference is that this Bush Administration had a plan from day one for remaking the bureaucracy, and has done so with greater success.

As far back as the Florida recount, soon-to-be Vice President Dick Cheney was poring over organizational charts of the government with an eye toward stocking it with people sympathetic to the incoming Administration. Clay Johnson III, Bush’s former Yale roommate and the Administration’s chief architect of personnel, recalls preparing for the inner circle’s first trip from Austin, Texas, to Washington: “We were standing there getting ready to get on a plane, looking at each other like: Can you believe what we’re getting ready to do?”

The Office of Personnel Management’s Plum Book, published at the start of each presidential Administration, shows that there are more than 3,000 positions a President can fill without consideration for civil service rules. And Bush has gone further than most Presidents to put political stalwarts in some of the most important government jobs you’ve never heard of, and to give them genuine power over the bureaucracy. “These folks are really good at using the instruments of government to promote the President’s political agenda,” says Paul Light, a professor of public service at New York University and a well-known expert on the machinery of government. “And I think that takes you well into the gray zone where few Presidents have dared to go in the past. It’s the coordination and centralization that’s important here.”

Read more

From Bloomberg.com:

Frist’s Political Future Darkens Over Questions on Stock Sales

By Laura Litvan and Otis Bilodeau

Sept. 26 (Bloomberg) – At the start of this year, U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist was looking at a bright political future. He led his party to an expanded majority in the Senate in November and emerged as a leading Republican hopeful for the 2008 presidential race.

Less than nine months later, that picture appears darker. Frist, 53, now faces inquiries into his stock sales by the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission that threaten to undermine him politically and provide Democrats fresh ammunition with which to question their opponents’ ethics.

“If there is really any evidence of insider trading, then he’s in very serious trouble, and so is his party,'’ said Gary Jacobson, professor of political science at the University of California in San Diego.

“It adds another brick to Democrats’ argument that Republicans are corrupt.'’

Frist through his spokesmen has denied any wrongdoing in the sale of shares of HCA Inc. held in a blind trust earlier this year, one month before a weak earnings report sparked a drop in the company’s stock. Nashville, Tennessee-based HCA, the biggest U.S. hospital chain, was founded by Frist’s father and brother. …

The probes add to the ethical questions hanging over congressional Republicans. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, a Texas Republican, was admonished three times by the House ethics committee last year and soon faces a new probe into his overseas trips funded by Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Last week, the White House’s former top procurement official, David Safavian, was arrested on charges of obstructing justice in a criminal probe of Abramoff.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, said Sept. 24 that her watchdog group will file a complaint with the Senate ethics committee as early as today seeking an examination of the timing of Frist’s stock sale.

There’s one good thing these verbal barbarisms can do for you, though, and that is to bring home the point of a quote from the late George Burns, the comedian, who said, “Too bad that all the people who really know how to run the country are busy driving taxi cabs and cutting hair.” Read ‘em all, progressive readers, and then consider running for office, please.

1) “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.” -President
Bush, on “Good Morning America,” Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated
warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane
Katrina (Source: Media Matters)

2) “What I’m hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in
Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the
people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this
(chuckle) - this is working very well for them.” -Former First Lady Barbara
Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5,
2005 (Source: Editor and Publisher)

3) “It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that’s
seven feet under sea level….It looks like a lot of that place could be
bulldozed.” -House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), Aug. 31, 2005 (Source: Sun-Times)

4) “We’ve got a lot of rebuilding to do … The good news is - and it’s hard
for some to see it now - that out of this chaos is going to come a fantastic
Gulf Coast, like it was before. Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house -
he’s lost his entire house - there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m
looking forward to sitting on the porch.” (Laughter) -President Bush,
touring hurricane damage, Mobile, Ala., Sept. 2, 2005 (Source: Huffington)

5) “Considering the dire circumstances that we have in New Orleans,
virtually a city that has been destroyed, things are going relatively well.”
-FEMA Director Michael Brown, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2005%2FWEATHER%2F09%2F01%2Fkatrina.fema.brown%2F>
)

6) “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” -President Bush, to FEMA
director Michael Brown, while touring Hurricane-ravaged Mississippi, Sept.
2, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorandpublisher.com%2Feandp%2Fcolumns%2Fpressingissues_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_id%3D1001054581>
)

7) “I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention
center who don’t have food and water.” -Homeland Security Secretary Michael
Chertoff, on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” Sept. 1, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fthinkprogress.org%2F2005%2F09%2F01%2Fchertoff-reality%2F>
)

8) “Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on
Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, ‘New Orleans
Dodged the Bullet.’ Because if you recall, the storm moved to the east and
then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing
worse.” -Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, blaming media
coverage < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wonkette.com%2Fpolitics%2Fmichael-chertoff%2Findex.php%23chertoffs-reading-habits-123841>
for his failings, “Meet the Press,” Sept. 4, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.msnbc.msn.com%2Fid%2F9179790%2F>
)

9) “I mean, you have people who don’t heed those warnings and then put
people at risk as a result of not heeding those warnings. There may be a
need to look at tougher penalties on those who decide to ride it out and
understand that there are consequences to not leaving.” -Sen. Rick Santorum
(R-PA), Sept. 6, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesleader.com%2Fmld%2Ftimesleader%2Fnews%2Fbreaking_news%2F12574597.htm>
)

10) “You simply get chills every time you see these poor individuals…many
of these people, almost all of them that we see are so poor and they are so
black, and this is going to raise lots of questions for people who are
watching this story unfold.” -CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, on New Orleans’ hurricane
evacuees, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wonkette.com%2F%23someones-been-reading-jack-shafer-123532>
)
11) “What didn’t go right?’” -President Bush, as quoted by House Minority
Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), after she urged him to fire FEMA Director
Michael Brown “because of all that went wrong, of all that didn’t go right”
in the Hurricane Katrina relief effort (Source < http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-09-07-congress-bush-katrina_x.htm>
)

12) “Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?” -House Majority
Leader Tom Delay (R-TX), to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans
at the Astrodome in Houston (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wonkette.com%2Fpolitics%2F%2Fi-dont-know-mr-majority-leader-why-dont-you-sleep-in-a-sporting-facility-after-enduring-days-of-diminished-food-water-plumbing-and-public-safety-and->
)

13) “We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn’t do it,
but God did.” -Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) to lobbyists, as quoted in the Wall
Street Journal (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.dccc.org%2Fmt%2Farchives%2F003475.html>
)

14) “Louisiana is a city that is largely under water.” -Homeland Security
Secretary Michael Chertoff, news conference, Sept. 3, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fatrios.blogspot.com%2F2005_09_04_atrios_archive.html%23112597122217543452>
)

15) “I also want to encourage anybody who was affected by Hurricane Corina
to make sure their children are in school.” -First Lady Laura Bush, twice
referring to a “Hurricane Corina” while speaking to children and parents in
South Haven, Mississippi, Sept. 8, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crooksandliars.com%2F2005%2F09%2F09.html%23a4875>
)

16) “It’s totally wiped out. … It’s devastating, it’s got to be doubly
devastating on the ground.” -President Bush, turning to his aides while
surveying Hurricane Katrina flood damage from Air Force One, Aug. 31, 2005
(Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2005%2FPOLITICS%2F08%2F31%2Fbush.katrina.ap%2F>
)

17) “I believe the town where I used to come - from Houston, Texas, to enjoy
myself, occasionally too much - will be that very same town, that it will be
a better place to come to.” -President Bush, on the tarmac at the New
Orleans airport, Sept. 2, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nytimes.com%2F2005%2F09%2F02%2Fnational%2Fnationalspecial%2F02BUSH-NOTEXT.html>
)

18) “Last night, we showed you the full force of a superpower government
going to the rescue.” -MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.dailyhowler.com%2Fdh090205.shtml>
)

19) “You know I talked to Haley Barbour, the governor of Mississippi
yesterday because some people were saying, ‘Well, if you hadn’t sent your
National Guard to Iraq, we here in Mississippi would be better off.’ He told
me ‘I’ve been out in the field every single day, hour, for four days and no
one, not one single mention of the word Iraq.’ Now where does that come
from? Where does that story come from if the governor is not picking up one
word about it? I don’t know. I can use my imagination.” -Former President
George Bush, who can give his imagination a rest < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.washingtonpost.com%2Fwp-dyn%2Fcontent%2Farticle%2F2005%2F08%2F30%2FAR2005083002162.html>
, interview with CNN’s Larry King, Sept. 5, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.editorandpublisher.com%2Feandp%2Fnews%2Farticle_display.jsp%3Fvnu_content_id%3D1001054805>
)

20) “We just learned of the convention center - we being the federal
government - today.” -FEMA Director Michael Brown, to ABC’s Ted Koppel,
Sept. 1, 2005, to which Koppel responded ” Don’t you guys watch television?
Don’t you guys listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting on it
for more than just today.” (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Famericablog.blogspot.com%2F2005%2F09%2Fted-koppel-rips-rips-rips-michael.html>
)
21) “I don’t want to alarm everybody that, you know, New Orleans is filling
up like a bowl. That’s just not happening.” -Bill Lokey, FEMA’s New Orleans
coordinator, in a press briefing from Baton Rouge, Aug. 30, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nola.com%2Fnewslogs%2Fbreakingtp%2Findex.ssf%3F%2Fmtlogs%2Fnola_Times-Picayune%2Farchives%2F2005_09.html%23077935>
)

22) “FEMA is not going to hesitate at all in this storm. We are not going to
sit back and make this a bureaucratic process. We are going to move fast, we
are going to move quick, and we are going to do whatever it takes to help
disaster victims.” –FEMA Director Michael Brown, Aug. 28, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crooksandliars.com%2F2005%2F09%2F07.html%23a4845>
)

23) “I don’t make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you
know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.” -FEMA Director
Michael Brown, arguing that the victims bear some responsibility, CNN
interview, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2005%2FWEATHER%2F09%2F01%2Fkatrina.fema.brown%2F>
)

24) “I understand there are 10,000 people dead. It’s terrible. It’s tragic.
But in a democracy of 300 million people, over years and years and years,
these things happen.” –GOP strategist Jack Burkman, on MSNBC’s “Connected,”
Sept. 7, 2005 (Source < http://clk.about.com/?zi=1/XJ&sdn=politicalhumor&zu=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.crooksandliars.com%2F2005%2F09%2F06.html%23a4820>
)

25) “Thank President Clinton and former President Bush for their strong
statements of support and comfort today. I thank all the leaders that are
coming to Louisiana, and Mississippi and Alabama to our help and rescue. We
are grateful for the military assets that are being brought to bear. I want
to thank Senator Frist and Senator Reid for their extraordinary efforts.
Anderson, tonight, I don’t know if you’ve heard - maybe you all have
announced it – but Congress is going to an unprecedented session to pass a
$10 billion supplemental bill tonight to keep FEMA and the Red Cross up and
operating.” -Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA), to CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Aug. 31,
2005, to which Cooper responded:

“I haven’t heard that, because, for the last four days, I’ve been seeing
dead bodies in the streets here in Mississippi. And to listen to politicians
thanking each other and complimenting each other, you know, I got to tell
you, there are a lot of people here who are very upset, and very angry, and
very frustrated. And when they hear politicians slap - you know, thanking
one another, it just, you know, it kind of cuts them the wrong way right
now, because literally there was a body on the streets of this town
yesterday being eaten by rats because this woman had been laying in the
street for 48 hours. And there’s not enough facilities to take her up. Do
you get the anger that is out here?” Source

The last line of this says it all…

NEWS SUMMARY
As Howard Fineman, Adam Nagourney, Rick Berke, Jeff Greenfield, Elizabeth Wilner, Ron Brownstein, Matt Cooper, Mike Abramowitz, and Ken Mehlman would say, “How is the situation President Bush faces tonight different than on all other nights since 9/11?":

He has never seen his poll numbers take this kind of hit among Republicans before.

He has never seen his poll numbers on “strong leader” and “can handle a crisis” take such a hit before.

He has never seen his efforts to build the Republican Party among African-Americans be so thoroughly undermined before.

He has never been rolled by Nancy Pelosi before.

He has never been without Dr. Rice or Ambassador Hughes down the hall during a crisis before.

He has never had two open-ended spending commitments of tens of billions of dollars before.

He has never had to take “responsibility” for such death-infused tragedy before.

He has never had to rethink whether he has put fully qualified people in critical jobs before.

He has never had so many well-meaning Republican strategists and Administration aides whole-heartedly agreeing that the White House was too slow off the mark in dealing with a crisis before. He has never had to dial back on his view that “it’s also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life” — at least in public — before.

He has never had to be dependent on an inexperienced Democratic governor of a poor state for his own political health before.

He has never faced the possibility of long-term blame for something (the rebuilding of New Orleans and other devastated areas) that is to a large extent beyond his control — and which he will say tonight should be left largely to the choices of local people — before.

He has never had to be so deeply self-conscious about tossing off sarcastic remarks, half-baked cracks, and casual comments before.

He has never been so denied the cushion of his nonchalant confidence and relaxed superiority before.

He has never been perceived as such a potential liability by others in his party looking to hold their seats before.

He has never lacked The Other — an enemy to demonize and to contrast with himself and his policies in the eyes of the media and the public before.

American Red Cross

http://arc.convio.net/site/PageServer?pagename=ntld_main

MoveOn.org - Civic Action, Hurricane aid resources

http://www.hurricanehousing.org/

We missed this juicy titbit from our friend Pat Robertson in our fringe bytes section. All you blue state hedonists may want to beware…

Bring it on: End of times

Some Bible students theorize that when Revelation describes “the mystery of Babylon, mother of harlots, who made the nations of the world drunk with the wine of her fornication,” it may be alluding to New York or Hollywood, or other powerful cities in the United States that have exported our immorality to the world.