Bad performance, or bad politics?

Posted by Mission Man at 1:55 AM

The Bush administration just gets funnier by the day. First, it gives us the most incompetent Secretary of Defense since Robert McNamara, and praises him for his extraordinary ability up until (and after in Dick Cheney's case) the day he is fired. It gives us the man who had absolutely no comprehension on how to run FEMA before or after the Katrina disaster. And in the Justice Department, headed by the man of whom Keith Olbermann said, "I'd really like to see his diploma," eight attorneys have recently been fired.

Each of these attorneys, all Republicans appointed by Bush, received strong performance evaluations repeatedly between 2003 and 2006. Yet, the administration claims they were fired due to "poor job performance."

In today's NYT, Adam Cohen looks at possible reasons for the firings. And they are not pretty -- unless, of course, you encourage cronyism and politics as a more acceptable way of running a government than competence.