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The Raimondo fiasco
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Mar 20, 2004 07:19pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| Media | TV News - CNN |
| News Date | Saturday, March 20, 2004 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Nationally syndicated columnist Robert Novak participates in three of CNN's political public affairs programs- Novak, Hunt & Shields, Crossfire and The Capital Gang
WASHINGTON (Creators Syndicate) -- The most charitable explanation of why President Bush's choice to be the government's manufacturing czar crashed and burned last week is sheer incompetence.
But the real causes of this embarrassment look like something worse: secrecy, deceptiveness and vindictiveness in this administration.
It could be a script from television's "West Wing." Nebraska industrialist Tony Raimondo was selected to be the newly created assistant secretary of manufacturing in the Commerce Department at the recommendation of his friend and business associate, the state's Democratic senator, Ben Nelson.
But before Secretary of Commerce Donald Evans' scheduled announcement, the appointment was leaked to Sen. John Kerry. The prospective Democratic presidential nominee then revealed that Raimondo runs a factory in China. Senate Republican leaders won White House agreement not to make the nomination, and Bush aides blamed Nebraska's Republican senator, Chuck Hagel.
The incompetence stems from White House failure to notify Hagel or any other Republicans in advance. That the process of vetting an important nominee fell apart in the fourth year of the Bush administration defies credibility. |
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