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Patronage - a powerful tool of those who govern! |
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Sunday January 03, 2010 08:21 PM |
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PRESIDENTIAL-APPOINTMENTS.ORG |
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HOW
TO APPROACH
WORKING FOR THE PRESIDENT.
There are more ideas and formulas for being appointed by the President to a federal position of one kind or another than there are people. It is a speculative, interesting, advanced level guessing game where the stakes are high and the rewards may be grand, or devastating. Everybody has an opinion. Here are mine!
For starters, the appointment process is complex and intentionally so. On one hand, there are very, very serious political considerations in every appointment. The process is intentionally difficult to understand so that it is tough for applicants to corner who exactly is making the decision on who is going to be appointed to what position. With a few exceptions, it is a committee process. If you keep in mind that a "short list" of finalists for a job may be from three to twenty five people in length, and only one is going to get appointed, there are going to be a bunch of angry folk when the final selection is made. Being rejected by the President for a high level position is a bruising process to political egos which are usually fragile, thin, and give a whole new definition to sensitive. If you keep in mind that many people know when a person applies for an appointment because of the references required, and they aren't from the neighborhood grocer - they are from Governors and Senators and people who are already powerful. If they recommend a person, and that person is rejected by the White House for an appointment, that rejection rattles up and down the reference chain in a serious way.
Each of us can imagine how many requests for work and applications for political positions the White House receives. The number of contacts has to be huge. As far back as Andrew Jackson there are stories of the White House being overrun by patronage seekers to the extent of causing riots on the Mansion grounds. The obvious point is that an applicant has to have access to that system in some form other than e-mail, on-line applications, and letters to the President to expect any chance of getting into the nomination structure.
Access is the key word. Most serious applicants have been in and around the political game long enough to have a contact of some sort or another able to find out who is actually taking applications for serious consideration. Whether it is a friend or supporter of the President, or another politician, an office holder, or any - yes any - other person who has access to the power structure. No small number of contacts in history have been established through the churches, and a significant number through prostitutes and poker partners. In the coldest possible sense, it doesn't matter how access is established, but there must be insider access of some sort or another in essentially all cases for there to be any serious consideration. Undoubtedly there are examples of nominees plucked out of the halls of ivy and unknowns out of business or the professions - but somebody had to know who to pluck, and that is a form of access, even if unsolicited and unidentified.
What position? Certainly some individuals are sought out to fill particular positions, but after that, identifying a position to seek is the art. The process is about the same as in the usual world of employment - identify a field of interest - study what positions are open, and the terms and qualifications of each one. There are references in other parts of this site about that process. You may be surprised at the number of positions which are subject to appointment by the President but are routinely filled by advancing civil servants and hold-overs from prior administrations. You may be impressed how little the White House actually knows about many of those appointments - the lesser ones are difficult to track from Washington and often very difficult to fill with political connections given the idea that most are committed to serving the country in the Court of St. James or in a position where lunch with the President is a part of the job description. Lesser positions are often tough to peddle.
Who is doing the sorting and selecting may be difficult to establish. Each administration approaches patronage in a different way, but there will be a personnel center in the White House establishment itself which is at the core of things. Senators and Members of Congress may be helpful, particularly if they have an interest in the appointment. A few dozen persistent phone calls to the department or agency which seems to have the position usually puts a candidate on the right track. Don't let the suggestion that you send your letter and resume to a particular person divert you - keep with the phone calls until you are near the White House. At the moment, the telephone answering electronics at the White House personnel office will keep your long distance card occupied for more than a few minutes, so have your coffee handy and be ready to hang into the system a long time until you get some answers. Candidates get lucky all the time, but persistence is a better friend than luck.
Don't stick with a single approach to seeking a position unless you are chatting with the head of White House recruitment - somebody close to that level - or the President or his family directly. Being deft and careful about who represents you in various representations to the appointing authority is important. Learning strategy and using contacts from another, but remember, in politics, you may well pick up the enemies and problems of your representative. Being persistent on your own, using references that are well placed, and moving ahead on your own probably puts you in the best hands possible.
Contact: Director@Presidential-Appointments.org
Thank you. John Isaacson 617 504 3699
Copyright 2002 -2010 John Isaacson