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Odd
Appointment Tales
Odd and Interesting Presidential Appointments
Now and then peculiar,
or odd, or just interesting nominations occur that may or may not have
any importance in the greater scheme of things. This is a compilation
of some of those.
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Nuisance Spouses-pre-President Appointments
Hillary Clinton obviously felt some
compulsion to define Bill as a roving Ambassador if she is elected
President. It kills the fun of thinking of the President as
First Gentleman selecting china and silver for state
dinners. Who sleeps in the President's bedroom and who is in
the First Lady's - whoops - the First Gentleman's suite in the
White House - Ambassador Clinton, of course! If there is a
sign of courage in this it is Hillary's simultaneous (duplicitous)
effort to get him out of the House and doing his thing (damage)
out of site Ambassadoring and whatever else remotely. On the
serious side, if one can possibly be conceived in all this -
rarely does a Presidential candidate make an appointment before
elected - it might even be illegal - but defining - and a sure
target for attack in a campaign. 4-22-07 |
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Moving
on: Rove goes over the Side
Karl Rove is being touted as some sort
of spectacular being who is unique in the history of the United States
Presidency. History shows these side-kicks of President's are lost
in history, and rarely are found as more than footnotes, and seldom is
that so. Every President has one or more of them! Rove is no
exception and we are spending more time on this departure than is
appropriate.
Rove is
given credit for the mean bloodletting of the two major Bush elections,
but that is a trademark of the Conservative Movement and the Conservative
Right - they have operated the same for 50 years - and long before
Rove. That is not to suggest Rove had any decency in the way he used
his power - but he didn't invent it.
In
a broader sense, these sorts of side kicks never go away, they hang around
the President's they served "until death do them part" - or jail
do them part - which has happened more than once.
This
particular role around powerful executives, kings, queens, corporate
bosses, are always miserable people - or they get miserable when they
start wielding the boss' power. In terms of Presidential
Appointments, they are high ranking appointments.
A
significant number of them over the years have ended up in jail or at
least in scandals. Dwight Eisenhower's man almost went to jail for
misuse of power, Truman's for corruption, Lyndon Johnson's for illicit
sexual solicitation in a YMCA near the White House - it is a problem of
little people who come into too much power. August
15 2007
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