QUALIFICATION ISSUES
A variety of views about the process are express in books, publications, certainly not either complete nor my view, necessarily.

     Patronage appointments, by definition, are selected on having access to the appointing power.  In this country what qualifications are required vary.  Sometimes the qualifications are not important, and access and position are.  Here are some general ideas about how the standards of qualification are met:

• STATUTORY QUALIFICATIONS:  Some positions established by federal law have specific qualifications.  For example, federal judges must be licensed lawyers in good standing, and the Surgeon General of the United States must be a medical doctor in good standing.  Many  positions have formal legal requirements set out by law.  The source for these required qualifications is in the federal statutes which create the positions.

• POSITION QUALIFICATIONS:  Many positions require that the appointee have a particular position.  Some commissions or committees, and many positions, require that the appointment be a governor, or a senator, or a preacher, President of the National YWCA,  conductor of a symphony orchestra, or a teacher.  You can imagine the sorts of positions - they are almost infinite - which might be required as a qualification.  The source for this sort of qualification is in the federal statute, Executive Order, or other document which creates the position.  This source is available in places like federal law, the Federal Register, or in the records of  particular agencies or departments establishing the position.

• QUALIFICATION BY GENDER:  There aren't many government positions where gender is a qualification.  In most cases, gender is not even allowed to be considered, and it is the basis of legal action under the federal civil rights laws to use gender as a qualification.  However, an example of an exception is that each political party must select a National Committeeman and a National Committeewoman from each State.  There are a few of those exceptions around - not many anymore.

• NATIONALITY OR CITIZENSHIP:  Generally, appointees must be citizens of the United States.  There are exceptions defined in the documents which create the positions.  Voter registration is usually not a qualification. .

• QUALIFICATION BY POLITICAL PARTY:   There are few, if any, individual appointments of the President where a particular party qualification is established by the law creating the appointment.  Some statutory requirements and a lot of practical good political sense, often result in a substantial balance of identified members of each political party and some independents on committee or group appointments.  Usually the party of the President has some level of voting dominance on commission or group appointments if there is to be any voting.  Group appointments occur without such balance, but they are more often than not ceremonial in nature.  Sometimes groups are balanced with equal numbers of Senators, or Representatives, or Governors, or members of other groups, and almost without exception, there is equal party representation.  Groups that result from individual appointments, such as a meeting of the 12 Regional Directors of the Small Business Administration, all direct appointments of the President, do not have that sort of balance when they meet together as a committee of Regional Directors.  You can bet the Party of the President dominates any group where important issues are to be the subject of votes of the group on policy.

• REGIONAL OR GEOGRAPHIC FACTORS:  Executive appointments are governed in part by subject matter, and in large part by political impact.  An appointment which deals with, say sheep, or maybe garbage disposal for eastern seaboard cities, or some other highly specific issue related in some part to geography will draw appointments related in part to the geography involved.  As usual, regional balance is always considered in terms of political impact when appointments of any sort are made.  It is almost an absolute certainty that political impact of the region where the potential appointee comes from will be fed into the decision maker's judgment.

• PERSONAL QUALIFICATIONS:  Many appointments are tied directly to personal talents and qualifications of potential appointees.  A member of the Council of Economic Advisors to the President will surely have solid academic qualifications in economics, and a solid public record showing a personal position on various economic theories.  A commission on the threat of a volcano will include a vulcanologist and geologists.  Day-to-day experience in the field of the appointment is usually important as well.  In some cases, it is also possible for someone the President happens to like or want on an appointment list will also succeed.  That seems like a bad idea on its face, and often is, but there are many startling exceptions where closeness to the President makes the project work.  In is in these situations where the mystery of the patronage process, its vagueness and improbabilities make up for openness and lack of definition which infuriate those demanding clarity and certainty.  Many more than one appointment has frustrated all of us and in the end was a good idea for absolutely the wrong logical reasons, but for the right human reasons.  Only those inexperienced in the use of power ultimately challenge this concept.  

Home  Table of Contents

Citizen Advisory Committees

 Resumes of Presidential Nominations  Ceremonial Appointments by the President  Federal Links on Appointments Nominations  Withdrawals from the Senate Confirmation Process  Posted Federal Requests for Nominations  Tracking Nominations through the Senate  - Director@Presidential-Appointments.org

Appointments Process:  Ambassador Appointments   Troubled Patronage  Appointments   Citizen Advisory Committees   Clean Up Your Act  Approach to President Compensation  Qualifications  Appointment Information    Appointee Choices  Ceremonial Appointments Conflict of Interest  2008 Appointment Military Appointments    Nominations Requested   Recess Appointments   Federal Appointment Resources    "Holds" by Senators

2008-2009 Presidential Transition:    2008-2009 Presidential Transition    White House Staff

Cabinet Departments:  Agriculture  Commerce  Defense Education  Energy  Health & Human Services  Homeland Security    Housing-Urban Development  Justice  Labor State Transportation  Treasury   Veterans Affairs

Administrative Pages:  Resource Pages Organization  Data Base Creation Focus  Planning Ahead  Appointment Tracking

Federal Advisory Committees

Federal Administrative Agencies:  Centers for Disease Control  Consumer Product Safety Commission  Consumer Related Regulatory Agencies  Fish and Game Food and Drug Administration  Indian Affairs  Inspector's General    Nuclear Regulatory Commission  Small Business Administration

Archival Material:   News Notes  Interesting Current Events  Odd Appointment Tales 

Court System:   Federal Judiciary  Supreme Court  United States Attorneys

International Agency Appointments:  International Banks and Development Agencies

Policy:  Bolton Recess Appointment  Creeping Tyranny Developing Policy Stories  Disclaimer  Economic Forces and Structures  Executive Privilege  Lame Duck Administration  Mission  Observations  On Behalf of the People  Presidential Appointees in Trouble  Science and Politics  Power Strategies

Services:  Current Appointment  Links  Glossary and Definitions  Intense Searches  Subject Search  Searching for Appointments  Table of Contents

Owner Vita

     John Isaacson, page owner, graduated from Washington University Law School - He was involved in Missouri state politics as campaign manager for Governor and as state Republican Campaign Chairman in 1963-1964. Isaacson was an Air Force Intelligence Officer in Europe during the Berlin Crisis under John Kennedy - President Nixon appointed him to serve on the President's Commission for the Observance of the 25th Anniversary of the United Nations, serving on the Executive Committee and the China Subcommittee which recommended the admission of China to the United Nations. His political experience includes meetings with Presidents Harry Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, and Ford. He enjoyed a long personal friendship with Eleanor Roosevelt and Edna Gellhorn, the founder of The League of Women Voters. Isaacson has traveled extensively throughout Europe and the Near and Far East.  He now lives in western Montana near the Rocky Mountain Continental Divide in Butte Montana, the "Richest Hill on Earth."