Tuesday, September 06, 2005

Cronies and consequences

Tell me again why the president appointed a former show-horse czar Michael Brown to head an agency whose core mission is about as essential as governmental responsiblities get? I think the answer is pretty clear: Geroge W. Bush values his buddies first. You and I and everyone else come a distant second.

You know, this really gets to the heart of my objections to him as president, which date to 1999, when I made sure to vote for John McCain in the Michigan Republican primary. He's a crony conservative who doesn't respect government (and by implication, citizens). Or do you think Bush saw the bang-up job he did running the International Arabian Horse Association made him just the guy to entrust lives to?

This raises another question, one I haven't been able to answer in what has been an admittedly cursory investigation. Did Michael Brown require Senate confirmation? If so, maybe it's time for us to start demanding that Senators help weed out the patronage picks and require at least some minimal qualifications in appointees to important positions.

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