Volume 2 Issue 63
April 30, 2003
Nepotism and Public Policy
Strange Rumors about a Bush twin, more unfunded mandates for the states, and who should play John Edwards!
An article today about an embattled New Jersey State Senator accuses him of putting his mother and mother-in-law on his office payroll. While at first this may seem reeealy bad, in reality, it looks like they were actually doing the jobs they were on the payroll for (being senior citizen outreach workers), and actually doing a decent job of it. This brings up an interesting question...is nepotism in politics and institutions always a bad thing?
Of course in New Jersey, corruption is a way of life, and the article notes that "There have traditionally been three sacred cows in the legislature that both sides have a seemingly unspoken, long-term agreement not to discuss in a campaign environment: the hiring of member staff, the use of AT&T telephone credit cards that are intended for official use only, and the use of campaign funds to pick up the occasional personal expense. Because these abuses have long been of a bi-partisan nature, they are believed to be fairly widespread and not the subject of scrutiny." All these things are bad in extreme situations, but are they worth worrying about overall? If someone is making thousands of personal calls on the state, that's bad. If they make one or two a month, can't we just bill them for those calls? That's the way it's worked at some institutions I've been at. And regarding campaign funds picking up personal expenses...what's a personal expense? If you have dry-cleaning done...is it personal, or because you have to wear a suit to that rally, is it political? When the legal structure of these laws become so absolute that people have to hire teams of lawyers to figure them out, it only encourages more loopholes to develop, and reduces transparency to the public in these areas. I mean, look at the federal campaign finance laws!
Going back to the nepotism question, it should be noted that in many situations, it is in fact wrong. When a family member gets a contract or a job that they are unqualified for simply because of their connection, that's bad. But if they are qualified to do the job, and do a good job at it, is giving a job to a brother or uncle any worse than giving a contract to a campaign contributor? Isn't it also good to have a brother or relative that may be a key adviser anyway in an official capacity that may be subject to oversight? The most common example of this is John F. Kennedy's appointment of his brother Robert as Attorney General. Wasn't that better than having Bobby just being on some law firm's payroll while at the same time being a close adviser to his brother with no oversight from Congress?
If someone runs a business and the board appoints that person's son to the company, should that nepotism be outlawed too? Does anyone really believe that George W. Bush could have been elected President if his father hadn't been President? Just as when someone one wins office, he gets to appoint people to jobs, who are usually folks that were loyal and part of the "team", does the line really blur that much when it's a relative? Again, if it's just a backhanded way of padding ones salary, or giving a job to an unqualified person, it should not be allowed. But does that mean we should ban even qualified people from holding jobs just because of who they are? That doesn't sound like America.
Here's the article. Oh, look for the John Edwards movie suggestions down in the Presidential section.
I'm putting this near the top only because I want to lead with something other than Iraq: And it's juicy too...is there a tape of a naked Bush daughter somewhere in New Haven that is about to end up in the hands of Larry Flynt? And what the hell is wrong with these people at Yale? "Naked parties" were not big at any university I attended...are these Ivy Leaguers the ones we want running the country? -
http://www.nypost.com/seven/04292003/gossip/pagesix.htm
Why don't young people vote? As I enter my last year of the "18 to 25" demographic, one of the biggest civil society issues that the US faces is that so few young people vote. Why? Perhaps it's because our educational system has taken so many other of the choices away from them, they can't really think about deciding, and think no one cares what they have to say. A fantastic article that ties in what is wrong with our educational systems with what is wrong with our civil society -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57292-2003Apr29.html
Unfunded Mandates Galore! Screw State's rights! Let them do everything! In fact, mandate they do everything! And then give them no money! No, the Education bill wasn't enough!
Let the states run Amtrak!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A56663-2003Apr29.html
Let the states run the Housing programs! (with little federal money for them!)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50780-2003Apr28.html
And now that we've gotten rid of all those pesky government things, we can cut people's federal taxes, so their state and property taxes can double or triple, and they end up paying more in taxes than they did before! Yay for Bush economics!
Saddam, I mean Bush, to address America: The President will address the nation tomorrow night from an aircraft carrier in the middle of the Pacific. Does Bush's recent obsession with appearing only in military contexts (at defense plants, air bases, etc.) make anyone else uncomfortable? Or remind you of anyone else?
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/international/30WIRE-BUSH.html
Saddam and Osama, Perfect Together: Saddam has sent a letter to an Arab newspaper, calling for resistance, and saying that later this week he will send, that's right, a videotape. Perhaps they're hiding together?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988619.stm
Screw You, Colin Powell: Did the White House endorse Newt Gingrich's recent Powell-bashing speech?
http://www.thehill.com/news/043003/gingrich.aspx
Empire? Maureen Dowd is the latest to ask the US to please decide if we're an empire or not -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/opinion/30DOWD.html
The Rest of the Middle East: Despite the bombing yesterday in Tel Aviv, the administration went forward with their "roadmap" for peace today -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2988373.stm
We make peace with someone? Looks like Lybia and the US may be about to make peace though -
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-libya-lockerbie.html
Idiot Republican Senators: Just after 9/11, Rick Santorum sent out a mailing where he claimed that the biggest issue facing America was...not the War on Terror...not even the War on Iraq...nor the sinking economy...but, that's right...stopping gay marriage. A model of what the Republican party truly stands for -
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/states/pennsyl vania/cities_neighborhoods/philadelphia/5747130.htm
Idiot Gun Nuts: The NRA will place a 10 foot statue of Charlton Heston in front of it's DC headquarters. Um...that's just nuts -
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2003/04/25/national2329EDT0798.DTL&nl=fix
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2003/04/30/notes043003.DTL&nl=fix
Virgina Passes a Good Law: Virginia has become the first state to make Spam illegal -
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/30/technology/30SPAM.html
Look Who's Running for President: Do we have a 10th Democratic Candidate?
http://www.penna04leadership.com/index.html
Look Who's Running for President 2: Dick Gephardt has an early lead in Iowa, according to the latest Zogby poll -
http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=703
Look Who's Running for President 3: The Dean vs. Kerry battle continues, and it looks like today Dean gets the upper hand, showing that Kerry, as well as Bill Clinton, has said much of the same things that Kerry is now criticizing Dean for -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082229/
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082109/
This debate continues in the campaigns posting on ABC's Notepad today (I like how Dean refers to Kerry now as "the anted one") -
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/politics/US/notepad_main.html
Look Who's Running for President 4: In a big coup for Dean, the Washington Times ran a story today saying that he may have the best chance to win the nomination -
http://dynamic.washtimes.com/twt-print.cfm?ArticleID=20030430-20522530
John Edwards: The Movie: Back on Friday, April 18, I discussed how Watergatish the stories about John Edwards' campaign finance irregularities were. Though the story seems to have faded, at the time, I asked who should play Edwards if they ever made a movie. Got a few responses, here are two of the best -
A reader from Delaware writes, "Keanu Reeves should play Edwards for a few reasons: 1- they're both stupid...3- they're both terribly unphotogetic. 4- they've both made stupid career moves (even though Reeves' "bill and ted" is critically acclaimed in my mind, he did sign on for "speed 2")."
I have to agree...I mean have you ever tried watching a movie with Keanu Reeves? I couldn't even get through the Matrix because of him.
And a reader from Rockville, MD says, "I think either John Edward (the "psychic") should play John Edwards, since I'm pretty sure most people think they're the same person."
This is probably true...remember, 15% of voters in 2000 thought they were voting for the first President Bush...*sigh*.
Anyway, I hoped to finish this out with a nice ugly Edwards' photo, but unfortunately none was available. But this was on the wires today -
Um...shouldn't he have two horns, not just one?
What the hell is in the Water in Modesto? First Chandra Levy, then Laci Peterson, plus at least 2 others...now another girl has gone missing in the California town -
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/04/30/BA300028.DTL
A New Way to get the News? I think I would like this show, I'll have to check it out sometime -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082193/
Incomprehendable Science Story of the Day: Physicists have found a "rebel" particle...no word on what Don Rumsfeld plans to do about it -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2987195.stm
Screwing with the money again: Want to be on the committee that will choose the new nickel? Good luck -
http://slate.msn.com/id/2082245/
But, where will the crooked politicans get their money? New Jersey's biggest PAC donor, Commerce Bank, is a donor no more -
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5747150.htm
And the politicans are scrambling to fill the void -
http://www.courierpostonline.com/news/southjersey/m043003d.h tm
Bad Local Politics: A school board lawyer in Pennsylvania is accused of indirectly being responsible for the Superintendent's death -
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/5748831.htm
Wheee! The new governor of Georgia, the first Republican elected since Reconstruction, is accused of flying his helicopter without a license -
http://www.adn.com/24hour/politics/story/871214p-6080030c.html
So if you're in Atlanta, and you hear a low fliying helicopter - duck...and that ain't those "UN" Black Helios either...
Have a great day!
