Where are they now ... (aka the Peter Principle lives)

"Brownie, you're doing a heckuva job!!" is one of the saddest catch phrases to come out of the Bush administration. You know why. "Brownie" was sacked and dismissed from government work, but his chief of staff, Patrick Rhode had a different fate. Rhode was the guy who, while New Orleans was drowning, emailed his boss, "Brownie", to say that he was having his hair moussed for a tv appearance rather than coordinating relief for the victims of Katrina. Needless to say he was canned along with his boss and dismissed from government work, right, .... right...???

Wrong. In Jan. 2007 he was hired as a senior advisor to the office of the administrator for NASA. His qualifications: he was an event planner for the Bush campaign in 2000 and prior to that he was a tv reporter. Hopefully he just draws his salary and surfs the internet for hair care products, 'cause I'd hate to think that he's getting paid with our tax dollars and screwing up NASA.

But wait, there's more. The name Hans A. von Spakovsky is not easy to say (or type), but he was counsel to the asst. Attorney General for civil rights from 2003-2005. In that job his speciality was suppressing minority voting rights, and he led efforts to purge voter roles of poor and minority voters. It should come as no real surprise then that he worked for the Bush campaign on the Florida recount in 2000. While he wasn't entirely successful in his efforts to purge voters, fifty percent of the career employees in his section quit on his watch. After his rather nefarious stint in the AG's office he was naturally appointed to the Federal Elections Commission. Fair elections? Impartial monitoring of elections? Expanding democracy by involving more voters in the process? HA!!, ... and HA!! again.

The disdain the Bush administration shows for our country's government and the citizens it is supposed to work for is just unspeakably galling.

The above is taken from the current issue of Mother Jones and therein are more examples similar to the two included here. The author of the Mother Jones article is Joshua Kurlantzick.

Thanks for reading.
Mike