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Homeland Security: Land of Misfit Toys?
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ShareJune 05, 2007 2:28 PM
The Department of Homeland Security has earned a reputation as "a political dumping ground, a sort of Land of Misfit Toys" for its high quotient of political appointees who can boast more political clout than experience, according to a recent article in the Beltway insider magazine National Journal.
The magazine reported that DHS has an unusually large number of White House-appointed staffers in its ranks -- more than 350, compared to 64 for the Department of Veterans Affairs, which boasts 50,000 more career employees than DHS.
Those spots have increasingly been filled by "GOP fundraisers or apparatchiks...sent to pad their resumes or cool their heels," the typically reserved magazine noted, quoting unnamed former DHS officials who complained that "personal connections and political fealty" have become the primary attributes for employment in the agency's upper echelons.
Department spokesman Russ Knocke said the characterization was "patently false" because the department's top ranks have a large number of career employees.
Moreover, the assertion "defies logic," said Knocke. "If one is contemplating where to put political appointees to pad a resume...you wouldn't put them in a department where the stakes were so high," Knocke told the Blotter on ABCNews.com.
Results of a recent study show non-political employees at DHS may feel otherwise. In the 2006 survey of more than 10,000 DHS employees, two-thirds would not agree with the statement that "arbitrary action, personal favoritism and coercion for partisan political purposes are not tolerated" at the department.
Knocke said the department's top leadership were disturbed and unsatisfied by the overall results of the survey, which measured employee satisfaction across the federal government. Top officials are "turning over every stone" to look for answers to the problems identified in the study, said Knocke.
Across government, the Bush administration has expanded the number of politically-appointed positions since taking office in 2000, according to a study last year by Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., now chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
Do you have a tip for Brian Ross and the Investigative Team?
June 5, 2007 | Permalink | User Comments (11)
This staffing sounds like the FEMA staffing when Bill Clinton came in 1993. I joked to a friend after Hurricane Katrina i 2005 that George W. must have fired the people Clinton hired and re-hired the political appointees in the agency that Clinton had fired. I'm sorry to see that I was right.
Posted by: dvw | Jun 5, 2007 3:45:32 PM
DHS, DoJ, GSA, and all branches of government have been stocked with "loyal Bushies". Perhaps when republicans realize that Bush's programs have harmed this country they will help clean up the mess that this administration has been from day 1.
Posted by: Steve5117 | Jun 5, 2007 8:41:49 PM
Slightly off topic here, but I need to vent.
I am a firm believer in equality in hiring. No politcal post should be filled with less requirements than a similar position in the private sector, nor should compensation vary from the private sector. Of course, with these requirements in place, governments might well lose 90% of their work force.
Posted by: Robert Cole | Jun 6, 2007 7:48:00 AM
Care to explain this one, Mr. Knocke?
Richard D Davis II was a soccer coach at a Christian academy in Fullerton, California before he joined the Bush administration.
Davis's offical bio:
"Director of Prevention Policy for the Homeland Security Council at the White House, and is responsible for counter-terrorism policy development. He previously served the George W. Bush Administration as the Director of the Weapons of Mass Effect Prevention Task Force and Director of the Academe, Policy and Research Senior Advisor Committee at the Department of Homeland Security."
Posted by: Mrs Panstreppon | Jun 6, 2007 12:08:05 PM
Homeland Security couldn't stop that TB patient from flying or entering the US, even though he didn't try to conceal his identity. The "loyal Bushies" in the DoHS and doing a "Heckuv a job".
Posted by: Rodney Lamprey, jr. | Jun 6, 2007 1:10:09 PM
This should truly make us feel safe. Instead of just decimating New Orleans, they are in a position to let the whole country be destroyed.
Posted by: Sharon Dupree | Jun 7, 2007 3:50:03 PM
We all remember the articles that came out not too long ago regarding how Bush likes to hire law graduates of Regent University. The university was started by Pat Robertson and has one of the lowest academic ratings in the country. These are the kind of people that he hires for high positions. It is no suprise that a soccer coach was appointed by Bush for a high defense position.
Posted by: je po | Jun 7, 2007 3:57:34 PM
Squeenter is very displeased with how Bush has grown government agencies, and along with them, waste and incompetence. But to be fair, wasteful, incompetent and inefficient bureaucracies are hardly anything new. Nor are political appointments.
They were the norm before Bush and they likely will be after Bush as well. What we need are drastic cuts and purges of probably most federal agencies. The states could do with some of that too!
Posted by: squeenter squillo | Jun 8, 2007 10:26:49 AM
You know what they say: Rudolph The Red knows rain, dear.
Posted by: A Ree Dher | Jun 8, 2007 12:03:01 PM
I agree with some of the posting about cutting back of some of the Government Agencies, let's start with DHS, Immigration, FEMA and HUD. How about Cheney & his Staff?
Posted by: marc | Jun 13, 2007 9:22:25 AM
8.5 BILLION, unaccounted for to the Katrina Hurricane.
8 Billion squandered in Iraq,under Halliburtons control.
Time to dismantle structures of the current US Government!
Crooks in Washington.
Posted by: JB | Jun 15, 2007 11:41:16 AM
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