Bury Me Broken

To Advance in the Bush Administration, Be Wrong

[A second theme I will cover in the coming months as well as a retroactive examination is the idea that in order to advance in the Bush administration, you must do something illegal, immoral or at the most, highly questionable. I will argue that anyone advancing in this administration must foul up, see the foul up and demonstrate their ability to continue right ahead with rhetoric or damage control.]

My first example of this particular Bush administraton phenomenon is the hiring of TV and radio personality Armstrong Williams for $240,000 to tout the administration's No Child Left Behind education initiative. Anne Kornblut at NYT reports today in the article Inquiry Finds White House Knew of Pact With Writer that former deputy director Norquist and chief of staff Rice voiced their concerns:

The "concerns were so strong" that when it came time for the contract to be renewed a year ago, Ms. Nordquist and Ms. Radice each contacted David Dunn, an adviser to Ms. Spellings, who was Mr. Bush's domestic policy adviser. Mr. Dunn is now chief of staff at the department.

The point: Ms. Spellings was advised of two key personnel's concerns of paying Williams and President Bush makes her Secretary of Education. The person to which they voiced their concerns, David Dunn, now chief of staff at the department.

posted by niteskolar @ 11:36 PM