While I'm not the fan of Peggy that some are,
I'm with her on this one:
The president, as usual, acts as if all of this is totally unconnected to him. He's shocked, it's unacceptable, he'll get to the bottom of it. He read about it in the papers, just like you.
But he is not unconnected, he is not a bystander. This is his administration. Those are his executive agencies. He runs the IRS and the Justice Department.
A president sets a mood, a tone. He establishes an atmosphere. If he is arrogant, arrogance spreads. If he is to too partisan, too disrespecting of political adversaries, that spreads too. Presidents always undo themselves and then blame it on the third guy in the last row in the sleepy agency across town.
This gets to the heart of why I don't like giving the keys to the Oval Office to people who've never really *run* anything. Because you give them the keys to a huge bureaucratic apparatus, and they really have no idea what to do with it - and they tend not to do anything with it. President Clinton had been a governor - whatever you think of his politics and policies, he did know how to run a government.
Legislators and academics, and worse, academic legislators, do not. These past few weeks are ample demonstration of that.
They are also a demonstration of the dangers of a politicized bureaucracy, and that's a problem that has taken decades to grow to the canker it now shows some signs of being. We reformed the civil service to try to overcome the tyranny inherent in Tammany Hall.
Clearly, the Augean Stables need cleaning. That said - the Republicans need to acknowledge their piece of this - when they demonize the civil servant, as some of them do, they shouldn't be surprised to find the civil servant defends themself with the tools at hand.
This is a leadership challenge of the first order. This administration doesn't have a clue how to go about it, however.
Read the complete post at http://www.thedonovan.com/archives/2013/05/legislators_aca.html
Posted
May 17 2013, 06:12 AM
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Argghhh! The Home Of Two Of Jonah's Military Guys..