Will it never end?

No, of course not, not until inauguration day 2009. Can you imagine the pardons we're going to get? Kenneth Lay and the rest of the Enron/World Com boys would be a given, I would think Libby too by then, perhaps Gonzalez once he is convicted of contempt of congress?

By 'it' I refer to cronyism, the most disgusting and dominating aspect of this sordid administration. Imagine, if you will, what a McCain government would have accomplished after 9/11 (the alternative, a Gore Presidency, is even rosier)...Afghanistan would've been smashed, and a deft coalition of concerned partners, perhaps even a roundtable of neighbors (including Iran, Pakistan, and China), could've been brought together to minimize the potential disruption and instability. No Iraq, of course, since that was the unique domain of Cheney and co. McCain was simply too much of a realist (in the political science sense of the term). Oh....the dreams. Anyway, I digress.

Anyway, the true legacy of Bush, is not, I think, the fall of the grand 'conservative' coalition that has been tossed around in many circles since Rove's resignation. It is not even this bizarre set of foreign adventures. It is simply a legacy of sheer, unadulterated, mind-numbing, jaw-dropping incompetence. To be sure, incompetence might have contributed to both above legacies, but I think it all started with incompetence. I never thought I would long for a principled, small-government, isolationist, tax-cutting Republican....at least I can trust them to do what they claim they will do.

Where is MAR going with this rambling rant? Here. With the demise of one of the top 2 or 3 most egregious examples of nepotistic, cronysitic, myopic administration hiring practices (Gonzalez), the rumor is that Bush and co. have masterminded a new potential nominee for Most Nepostic and Cronyistic Bush Hire Ever.

Who is this Grand Master of Ass-Kissing you ask? Rumor is Clay Johnson III might be nominated as Homeland Security Secretary (I went to a private, elite, Southern university, and I am proud to know only one individual who is a III anything [although he is a pretty good guy]).

Let's take a look at this Clay Johnson III (he is currently Deputy Director for Management at the OMB). First sign of lip-puckering...this guy not only went to Yale with Bushie....he was in the same frat... and he even went to Andover too! He fawns over Bush in that interview, although he falls short of claiming the President ever was a decent student, or even interested in politics through college (how many leaders of democratically elected countries weren't into politics in college? Probably one -the US).

The man Bush wants to install as Homeland Security Secretary has absolutely no qualifications for the job...none at all. This is Harriet Myers all over again. Why do I say that? What kind of experience does he have? Well.....he is a businessman, with a masters in management from NYU's Sloan school, no direct shame in that. He's worked for:

• Citicorp,
  
• Frito's,
  
• Wilson sporting goods,
  
• and a mail order company.

Not too bad, but certainly nothing relevant. He's done some reasonable non-private sector work, is should give him credit there as well:

• running the Dallas Museum of Art
• teaching at the UT business school in Austin
• serving as a board member for some charitable organizations.

Then of course, he has been climbing up the Sycophant/Crony/Old-frat-buddy-career track that has given us Gonzalez, Harriet Myers, that moron blonde from Liberty University who told congress she swore an oath to the President not the Constitution, and that idiot horseman who 'ran' FEMA during Katrina.

• Deputy Director for Management at the OMB - read: in charge of keeping everyone in-line with Bush Party Line and generally politicizing the OMB
  
• Assistant to the President for Presidential Personnel - read: in charge of keeping everyone in-line with Bush Party Line and making sure new hires are sufficiently sycophantic
• Executive Director of Busch-Cheney Transition - read: in charge of keeping everyone in-line with Bush Party Line during Transition and making sure new hires are sufficiently sycophantic
• Gubernatorial Chief of Staff - I don't know enough about his governorship to slam this, but it can't have been illustrious

So....can anyone tell me what in that CV possibly qualifies this man for Homeland Security Secretary? Someone with law enforcement experience?...or maybe someone with an in-depth knowledge of the country's infrastructure?...an expert in counter-terrorism?...a life-long bureaucrat with experience navigating Washington's notorious red tape and back rooms? Even a truck driver with transportation-industry experience? Does he have any of these?

Oh!!! I've got it. Clay Johnson III is qualified to be the man primarily responsible with securing the United States against another terrorist attack.....because he once worked at a mail order company and therefore has in-depth knowledge on how to counter nefarious Jihadist plans involving the mail system! oh wait, his experience was back pre-internet, you know....when people actually used the mail. oh wait, the anthrax mail-terrorism was home-grown, not islamist. Well, there aren't many of Bush's frat brothers left by now, are there?