DON'T HAVE ANY EXPERIENCE? NO PROBLEM!

There is a tendency by the Bush administration to put people without any experience in key positions (Brownie anyone?) Experience? We don't need any stinking experience! What we want is ideology!

Apparently the only qualifications needed to rise to a high level in the Bush administration is being a true believer by which I mean early indoctrination into The Party early before the real world can interfer and show that 1) you really know nothing about how the world works, and 2) not everything you have learned is true. As we well know Reality has a liberal bias. Actual competence is not necessary. Should one of these unqualifed and inexperienced individuals make a monumental error, a Medal of Freedom will be bestowed.

There are not one but two examples in the thick of the U.S. Attorney Purge: Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson. Both had less than ten years experience before they were put in positions of power.


Monica Goodling graduated in 1999 from a low ranked law school called Regent University "Christian Leadership to Change the World" after attending Messiah College. How can such an individual get appointed to the high level and profile job of Department of Justice Spokesperson in the first place? A spokesperson for a cabinet level agency needs to have extensive experience in dealing with the public and the media. This position also requires experience in the actual practice of law so that the events occuring within the Department of Justice can be communicated effectively to the public. Ms. Goodling has neither.



Then there Kyle Sampson. Here is an excerpt from today's Washington Post. I believe the article was meant to be flattering.

Sampson coveted the U.S. attorney's job in Salt Lake City and twice approached the man who still had the job, Paul Warner -- now a federal magistrate -- to ask him when he'd be stepping down. The first occurred in a conference room in Utah, Warner said, and the second took place during a lunch in Washington on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Though they shared the same home state, Warner and Sampson followed different public service narratives. A former JAG attorney, Warner had spent 17 years in various capacities in the U.S. attorney's office, saying it "was where I wanted to be, not where I wanted to be from."

In speaking to the eager Sampson, Warner asked him to slow his motor.

"I let him know he would be helped with practical experience as a prosecutor," Warner said. "I told him he should spend some time as an assistant U.S. attorney. If you're going to be chief surgeon, it's nice to do some surgery."