John F. Lehman, a Republican commission member and former Navy secretary, said in a recent interview that he believed the panel may have been lied to but that he did not believe the evidence was sufficient to support a criminal referral.Until this administration came to power, in my lifetime, I never recollect another instance when the "fog of stupid bureaucracy" had such importance and consequence.
"My view of that was that whether it was willful or just the fog of stupid bureaucracy, I don't know," Lehman said. "But in the order of magnitude of things, going after bureaucrats because they misled the commission didn't seem to make sense to me."
Previous administrations would not have tolerated it. That's one of the reasons why the New York Times is reporting stories like this one about a 9/11 skeptic.
1 comment:
Speaking as a member of the vast government bureaucracy, the idea that Bush's bureaucracy is substantially different from any other president's is untrue.
Aside from the new hirees, most of my coworkers have between 20 and 30 years of experience. My management all has that length of service. While you can blame Bush for having some pretty shoddy appointees (and you should), the rank and file of the bureaucracy is the same as always. And of course it is the rank and file who do the actual work.
Has there been turnover in the rank and file? Sure, but that is mostly due to retirement when they can claim their pensions under CSRS. Many of those "retirees" are also still present as contractors. Very few career civil servants have left the government because of national politics. We just wait for the next guy to come into office.
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