Perils of cronyism: According to government labor union leaders, President Bush’s nomination of Federal Emergency Management Agency acting director R. David Paulison to be permanent director is causing middle managers to flee the agency.
GovExec.com reports that labor leaders are terming it an “exodus”:
“We have mid-level managers flying out the door [at FEMA],” said Charles Showalter, president of the American Federation of Government Employees’ National Homeland Security Council. “Any time you put a political appointee over public safety and operational issues, it scares the hell out of people.”
‘Any time you put a political appointee over public safety and operational issues, it scares the hell out of people.’
— Charles ShowalterLeo Bosner, a 27-year FEMA veteran and union representative, said Paulison’s 30 years of fire and rescue experience in Florida do not necessarily qualify him to lead FEMA, and called for someone with broader disaster management expertise. Bosner also was critical of Paulison’s support of FEMA remaining within DHS.
Apparently, before Paulison’s nomination as announced several candidates for the directorship had quietly asked to be removed from consideration. The unions asked for a broader search for a permanent director, but Republican Congress members came out in support of Paulison. The Dems appear to be waiting for confirmation hearings (which have not been scheduled) before publicly criticizing — or supporting — Paulison.
Note: Hurricane season begins in 49 days.
This is no different than when Porter Goss and his political henchmen took over the CIA just so they could oversee the mass exodus of the best of our nation highly trained spies. Seem spies don’t like crony hacks, either.
This has happened at the Pentagon as well. Look how many great, highly regarded generals have retired lately just to be free to speak out about Rumsfield and Bush.