Bush’s Cronies (10/25/2005)

By now just about everyone knows that Michael Brown, with a dishonest resume and no experience in emergency management, got his job as the Federal Emergency Management Agency director because he was a college roommate of Joe Allbaugh, President Bush’s campaign manager in 2000.  But FEMA’s bungling response to Hurricane Katrina is only one chapter in the sordid story of rampant Bush cronyism, which is crippling government functions and forcing the departure of experienced professionals.   Columnist Paul Krugman, in a September 13 New York Times article, points out that many government agencies are suffering from some version of the FEMA syndrome. Cronyism is destroying our faith in government and weakening our strength at home and abroad.  Here’s some background from Krugman and other media reports.

The Environmental Protection Agency has seen a major exodus of experienced senior scientists because the Bush administration refuses to enforce environmental laws.  Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at EPA, said:  “The budget has been cut and inept political hacks have been put in key positions.”  Partisan politics has also infested the Food and Drug Administration.  Assistant FDA Commissioner Susan Wood, the women’s health chief, resigned September 1, charging that FDA chief Lester Crawford overruled his own scientists’ finding that the morning-after pill could be sold safely without a prescription. Then Crawford himself resigned abruptly on September 23, seemingly because of a close personal relationship with a woman he had helped secure a promotion.  A veterinarian, Norris Alderman, was suggested to head women’s health, but public outrage stopped that appointment.  The questionable safety of Vioxx, certain heart devices, and anti-depressants has generated public mistrust of the FDA.  Iowa Republican Senator Charles Grassley stated: “In recent years the FDA has demonstrated a too-cozy relationship with the Pharmaceutical industry and an attitude of shielding rather than disclosing information.”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting’s Republican Chair hired a consultant to find liberal bias in its programming.  Any criticism of the Bush administration was considered to be liberalism, even when it came from conservative commentators!  The Treasury Department lost respect when its Secretary, John Snow, was hired for his loyalty, not his qualifications.  Now the best and brightest are leaving it, and key positions are unfilled.  One economist said there is no policy here, so why have a plumber when there are no pipes?  And who can forget the fiasco surrounding the appointment of Bernard Kerik to head Homeland Security?  Investigative reporters, not the FBI, uncovered Brown’s and Kerik’s background problems.

Now Julie Myers, a 36-year-old lawyer, has been named to head the $4 billion Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency; she has no experience in immigration, customs or law enforcement (so much for homeland security!); but, she is married to Homeland Security Michael Chertoff’s chief of staff and is the niece of General Richard Myers, former Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  David Safavian, White House procurement official botching the hurricane Katrina relief efforts, was recently arrested for lying and obstructing justice in an FBI criminal case against Republican operative Jack Abramoff.  Safavian’s wife is a top lawyer for a Republican congressman who is leading a whitewash of the White House’s incompetence on Katrina.

- Judith Kohler

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