09/26/06: Spoils System Spoils
spoils system n. The postelection practice of rewarding loyal supporters of the winning candidates and party with appointive public offices (American Heritage Dictionary).
The spoils system spoils.
American bureaucracy, different than most, is supposed to be a meritocracy. The civil service, subsequent to the Pendleton Act (1883), was built on the “best and brightest.” Despite our impressions to the contrary, public administration continues to be innovative and creative. The spoils system, history revealed, spoils.
The spoils system, a practice of hiring friends and loyalists to oversee public policy, has been frowned upon for quite a long time. Laws preventing its ills have promoted a modern bureaucracy which is both adaptable and flexible even amidst unforeseen change. In Iraq, the Bush Administration apparently has forgotten the ill affects of the spoils system.
A new book by Rajiv Chandrasekaran “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” excerpted recently in the Washington Post, depicts a spoils system in Iraq without rival. The perpetrators, however, are not Iraqis but members of the Bush Administration.
Chandrasekaran writes: “Many of those chosen by [Jim] O’Beirne’s office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which ran Iraq’s government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance - but had applied for a White House job - was sent to reopen Baghdad’s stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq’s $13 billion budget, even though they didn’t have a background in accounting.”
According to Chandrasekaran, common questions of applicants for CPA positions included - “Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000?” “Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror?” and even “What is your view on Roe v. Wade?”
The spoils system spoils. For this Administration its careless disregard to finding the best and brightest has been costly.
The spoils system has cost the Iraqis the best and brightest chance to succeed.
The spoils system has cost this President the best and brightest chance to build upon the brief bipartisan support he had following 9/11. This may cost Republicans the White House in 2008.
The spoils system has cost the Republicans the best and brightest chance to hold Congress in perpetuity as the new dominant majority party.
The spoils system spoils.
posted by CitizenU @ 8:50 AM
5 comments
5 Comments:
I was taught that one could deligate a task but not the responsibility. Those that put their cronies in positions rather than the best and brightest, must ultimatily be held responsible. It is through this spoil system that we get executives from horse show associations running FEMA during our worst national disasters. Leadership involves letting others know when they are not meeting the standards that are expected, not by giving false assessments "Brownie, you are doing a heck of a job!"
I'll start this off by saying that, ironically, i'm currently in the middle of "The best and the brightest" by David Halberstam. Having said that, didn't Kennedy essentially do the same thing? I mean, the political appointments he made were definitely in the finest traditions of the spoils system. (Can anyone honestly say Dean Rusk made a better secretary of state than Stevenson would've?)
As for the present, i'll agree that the spoils system has really messed up the Republican's chances for holding on to both the white house and congress. Appointing QUALIFIED friends and supporters is one thing, and isn't necessarily wrong. Appointing unqualified people to positions simply because they support you brings to mind some of the finest leaders in history. To name a few:
Chiang Kai-Shek? (aka The Peanut)
Ngo Dinh Diem anyone?
Fidel Castro perhaps?
Personally, after some of the lying in the last few years, i'm glad to see that the administration is following in such illustrious footsteps as those.
I hope no one thinks this is the first or last time it will happen. Cronyism and nepotism have penetrated human existence since...forever. Alterior motives permeate that couple thousand dollars in campaign money. An endorsement
Do the words "If we do not learn what happened in the past we are doomed to repeat it in the future" ring a bell?
Come to think of it, the spoils system kinda screws everyone over in the long run when you think about it. Then again, no one ever does.
Everyone says that this is bad and that we should do something about it. The problem, no one ever does.
-Stevo
Uh, not that I support the spoils system, but it's kind of like the Abramoff "scandal": those not on the up-and-up in politics exclaimed "Oh my" while I believe that this blog said "Business as usual?". While the spoils system is not really the best way to make sure a government, business, or just any organization, run well, it's a part of the system, just like lobbyists and their "gifts" to politicians. It's not right, but then, the majority of Chicagoans think that Mayor Daley is corrupt, and they would vote for him in the next mayoral election.
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