TIME Sunday: How many Mike Browns did Bush appoint?

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Sun, 25 Sep 2005 16:09:40 -0700 (PDT)

TIME Sunday: How many Mike Browns did Bush appoint?

 

 

 

 

TIME Sunday: How many Mike Browns did Bush appoint?

 

 

RAW STORY

 

Ex-FEMA chief Mike BrownA TIME inquiry finds that at top positions in

some vital government agencies, the Bush Administration is putting

connections before experience

 

FROM SUNDAY'S TIME -- EXCERPTS (FULL PAID STORY): " Historically, the

U.S. public has never paid much attention to the people the President

chooses to sit behind those thousands of desks. A benign cronyism is

more or less presumed, with old friends and big donors getting

comfortable positions and impressive titles, and with few real

consequences for the nation. But then came Michael Brown. When

President Bush's former point man on disasters was discovered to have

more expertise about the rules of Arabian horse competition than about

the management of a catastrophe, it was a reminder that the competence

of government officials who are not household names can have a life or

death impact.

 

THE FDA: His official FDA biography notes that Gottlieb, 33, who got

his medical degree at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, did a previous

stint providing policy advice at the agency, as well as at the Centers

for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and was a fellow at the American

Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. What the bio omits is

that his most recent job was as editor of a popular Wall Street

newsletter, the Forbes/Gottlieb Medical Technology Investor, in which

he offered such tips as " Three Biotech Stocks to Buy Now. " In

declaring Gottlieb a " noted authority " who had written more than 300

policy and medical articles, the biography neglects the fact that many

of those articles criticized the FDA for being too slow to approve new

drugs and too quick to issue warning letters when it suspects ones

already on the market might be unsafe.

 

FEDERAL PROCUREMENT: David Safavian didn't have much hands-on

experience in government contracting when the Bush Administration

tapped him in 2003 to be its chief procurement officer. A law-school

internship helping the Pentagon buy helicopters was about the extent

of it. Yet as administrator of the Office of Federal Procurement

Policy, Safavian, 38, was placed in charge of the $300 billion the

government spends each year on everything from paper clips to nuclear

submarines, as well as the $62 billion already earmarked for Hurricane

Katrina recovery efforts. It was his job to ensure that the government

got the most for its money and that competition for federal

contracts—among companies as well as between government workers and

private contractors—was fair. It was his job until he resigned on

Sept. 16 and was subsequently arrested and charged with lying and

obstructing a criminal investigation into Republican lobbyist Jack

Abramoff's dealings with the Federal Government.

 

A dozen procurement experts interviewed by Time said he was the most

unqualified person to hold the job since its creation in 1974.

Nevertheless, Safavian's April 2004 confirmation hearing before the

Senate Governmental Affairs Committee (attended by only five of the

panel's 17 members) lasted just 67 minutes, and not a single question

was asked about his qualifications.

 

IMMIGRATION: The Administration nominated Myers, 36, currently a

special assistant handling personnel issues for Bush. She has

experience in law-enforcement management, including jobs in the White

House and the Commerce, Justice and Treasury departments, but she

barely meets the five-year minimum required by law. Her most

significant responsibility has been as Assistant Secretary for Export

Enforcement at the Commerce Department, where, she told Senators, she

supervised 170 employees and a $25 million budget.

 

Myers may appear short on qualifications, but she has plenty of

connections. She worked briefly for Chertoff as his chief of staff at

the Justice Department's criminal division, and two days after her

hearing, she married Chertoff's current chief of staff, John Wood. Her

uncle is Air Force General Richard Myers, the outgoing Chairman of the

Joint Chiefs of Staff.

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