“To undermine your own president at the education department is one thing; to plot against him in front of foreigners is treason. The State Department is therefore a golden strait-jacket.”
–Blogger Andrew Sullivan on Barack Obama’s choice of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State.
Daily Outrage
Nobody’s watching the watchers
Who: Department of Homeland Security
What: The Government Accountability Office released a report Friday that takes the $41 billion DHS to task for not creating usable perfofmance goals for major acquisitions to support its mission, and for failing to make sure that the two oversight bodies formed to monitor the department were in fact doing so. The GAO found that 45 of 48 major DHS investment programs were either poorly planned, over budget, behind schedule or exhibiting other unsatisfactory progress.
Why it’s an outrage: The Office of Management and Budget has placed many DHS programs, which were designed to protect Americans from terrorist attack, on its Management Watch List.
Where to vent: www.dhs.gov
Dim Bulb
Who: Maggie Vertin
What: Vertin, an election judge in Wilkin County, Minn., was one of eight supposedly nonpartisan volunteer ballot counters in the extremely close recount between incumbent Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken.
Why it’s an outrage: Vertin spent two previous days in Otter Tail County, Minn. as a very partisan observer for Franken. As one of Coleman’s aides put it: “I don’t see how you can switch from being partisan one day to being neutral today.” Answer: you can’t.
Cure: Disqualify Vertin and anybody else who worked for either candidate.
