Old Globalists Never Die

I was reminded of that last month when President Bush [re]appointed Henry Kissinger, a former national security adviser and secretary of state to Presidents Nixon and Ford, to head an "independent commission" to examine potential intelligence failures that led to the 9-11 disaster.

Didn't Congress just do that? So who's paying Kissinger's salary? What will he find that Congress didn't? Will his report, when he's finished, also be "classified?" Isn't this song-and-dance familiar?

If you have ever wondered why "things" never change much from administration to administration – regardless of the party in power or the campaign pledges of the candidate who ultimately makes it to the White House – part of the answer can be found in the number of retreads each administration hires.

Most simply fade away when their inner circle vacates the Oval Office every four to eight years, only to re-emerge again a few years later when the inner circle's favorite son regains power.

Take John W. Snow, President Bush's most recent pick to replace Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. Snow is a veteran Republican insider; he served in both the Nixon and Ford administrations.

O'Neill, meanwhile, served in the U.S. Office of Management and Budget and the Veteran's Administration in the 1960s and 1970s. He was selected for his position by Vice President Dick Cheney, who previously served as President Ford's chief of staff. Cheney reportedly also "selected" Snow.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who's been in D.C. since the late 1950s, spent most of the 1960s as a U.S. congressman from Illinois. He quit in 1969 to join the Nixon administration, then became U.S. ambassador to NATO (yes, we actually have such a position) until 1974. Then, he joined the Ford administration before leaving government until Bush tapped him to serve again.

Iran-Contra figure Elliot Abrams was just appointed the administration's lead man on Arab-Israeli issues. His official title is "Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs," so his appointment doesn't require Senate confirmation. Elliot, you may remember, was secretary of state for Inter-American Affairs during his Iran-Contra days and pleaded guilty in 1987 to withholding information from Congress.

What about Adm. John Poindexter, new head of the Pentagon's "Information Awareness Office?" Also an Iran-Contra alum, he lost his job as national security adviser under Ronald Reagan, and was convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress, defrauding the government and destroying evidence in that scandal. Now he's back.

Democrats also recycle careerists. Bill and Hillary Clinton have spent their entire adult lives being supported by state and federal taxpayers. And like his father, Al Gore was a congressman and senator before he became Clinton's vice president.

Clinton education secretary Richard Riley served as a South Carolina state congressman, senator and governor. His last secretary of state, Madeline Albright, was a staff member of President Carter's National Security Council and in his White House after serving as chief legislative assistant to Sen. Edmund S. Muskie in the mid-1970s. His first labor secretary, Robert Reich, served as an assistant to then-Solicitor General Robert Bork in the Ford administration and headed the policy planning staff of the Federal Trade Commission during the Carter presidency.

Politicos in both parties will say such experience is necessary to run the vast and complex enterprise that is the U.S. government. But those advocating constitutional government wonder why our leaders believe the U.S. should be such a vast and complex enterprise.

Part of the blame must be shared by we the people because we continually elect old globalists and their inner circles – those of us who bother to vote, that is.

Our founding fathers never envisioned a government run by careerist politicians and bureaucrats. Through their writings and speeches, it was obvious they believed Americans would remain engaged in the electoral process and "eternally vigilant" against those political forces which sought to corrupt and bastardize the system. In that sense, we have failed our founders miserably.

As long as we continue to shun the electoral process, old globalists will never die – they'll simply be recycled at some point down the road. The results? An expanded and costly American empire, burgeoning taxes and a swollen federal budget and bureaucracy; that is the legacy of modern American political succession.

Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and author of the special report, "Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was Suppressed."

Now we hear he doesn't get a salary, so he has no need to disclose his personal business dealings with groups/governments that could be involved. We are to take his word that will avoid conflicts of interest.

Bush should drop Henry or cancel the commission, it's a joke.

But that's largely the way government works. You or I couldn't just walk in off the street and become Secretary of Defense. And if we started early enough, punched our clock at the right universities and positions, we would be Rumsfeld by the time we finally got the job.

Sometimes this can result in some very tone-deaf appointments, officials who are long on experience but short on other qualities, people who's only qualification is hanging around Washington long enough. Maybe the Kissinger appointment is one of these. But experience and the knowledge that it brings do count.

If present procedures are inadequate, work out how to bring experience, practical knowledge of working Washington and exposure to the higher levels of the political process to outsiders and novices. Then figure out how to prevent them from becoming the kind of people you want to replace.

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