Gen Dick Myers is an old high school classmate of mine. You will not find a finer person anywhere. That said, Julie Myers is very close to her uncle, and very smart and talented. She has the ability to master the job.
Does this mean giving us the "Potomac Shuffle"? That Chernoff character sure has had to talk out of both sides of his mouth. I feel sorry for him. I'll soon be feeling sorry for this gal.
Your logic escapes me.
So all the nieces of your high school classmates are de facto highly qualified for critical government jobs?
"She has the ability to master the job"? People in these positions are supposed to be selected because they have already proven their ability to handle the job.
The buddy system rules.
Perhaps so. But a government agency that plays a key role in HOMELAND SECURITY and the WAR ON TERROR is not the place for on the job training of an executive internship. If she screws up even once we could lose an American city to terrorists. President Bush should have chosen somebody with experience. Her Uncle Dick would have been a far more suitable and appropriate choice. He has experience commiserate with the job.
Gary:
You wrote: "Gen Dick Myers is an old high school classmate of mine. You will not find a finer person anywhere. That said, Julie Myers is very close to her uncle, and very smart and talented. She has the ability to master the job."
I have been very close to my Uncle, who is a fine, upstanding family man, a Deacon at his church, and is the Chief of Police in his town.
NONE of that means that I am qualified to be magically tunred into a police Captain tomorrow, no matter how smart and talented I might be, nor whatever my abilities are.
With a year of very specific training, by qualified instructors, followed by a year of actual in-the-field experience as a rookie, MAYBE I would make a good street cop on my uncle's police force. But I would not and should not be given supervisory charge over other, more experienced police officers until I had EARNED that position.
Not even my Uncle or his boss, the Mayor, want to see that happen. They aren't morons. Bush certainly is, but My Uncle and the Mayor aren't.
No matter how great a guy Dick Myers might be, that does not translate into any ability whatsoever on the part of his kin. What next, Dick Myers' second cousin who can't drive gets to run the Department of Transportation? Or Myers' great aunt, with no flying experience, gets to run the FAA? Maybe Bush should appoint Dick Myers' sixteen-year-old great nephew to run the Department of Defense. At least he has SOME experience in warfare, playing "Dungeons and Dragons".
The point is not how nice a guy Julie Myers' uncle is, nor how close she is to him. The point is that she has ZERO qualifications, ZERO experience, and ZERO practical understanding of the Federal agency to which she has been magically transported to the head of.
Instead, she is on record as saying that she is going to depend on the folks already working at that agency to hold her hand and nursemaid her through her tenure there.
That does not sound anything like "leadership" to me.
There is absolutely no reason for Julie Myers to be at the head of ICE, other than her familial and political connections. Please tell me what else could have possibly gotten her there; or did I just miss a staff meeting where this was explained?
Julie Myers has been magically turned into the head of a federal agency. She has no qualifications for the job. She has not EARNED the privilege to lead others who are more qualified. Those are the facts.
THAT, my friends, is defined where I come from as "Grade A Horse Manure". You can call it a Rose Bouquet if you like, but it will still stink.
--Jack