[Rhodes22-list] Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif/Let the games begin.

David Bradley dwbrad at gmail.com
Sat Nov 11 22:36:42 EST 2006


OK, Herb, I'll bite.

You made a comment that an investigation of the Bush administration is
political payback, vs. fixing the things that are wrong.  I said I hoped
they did, in fact, do a thorough investigation after years of mismanagement,
and that the poliitcal/media rhetoric wouldn't get in the way.  You seemed
to think the term mismanagement is somehow a mischaracteriztion, and that
the president has made decsions appropriately within the context of his
political platform.

When politicians talk, I think they are many steps removed from the reality
of every situation they discuss as they try to simplify, spin, or twist what
is almost always a complex situation.  Then the media get ahold of it and
it's even further removed from reality.  That's why I think the rhetoric is
dumb -- because it never does a fair job of explaining what's really going
on.  It gets in the way of the kind of reasoned debate that -- well --
managers would be expected to undertake in running a business.

I don't know much about politics, but I know a little bit about management.
I think the president was elected and paid to be a chief executive and
commander in chief.  At least one of those jobs is about management.  The
list of bad management decisions he made seems pretty long, in my opinion
(and it sounds like maybe yours too?).  He dangerously weakened the balance
sheet.  He squandered alliances and resources.  He drove away talent.  He
embarked on a war with no plan to succeed based on weak intelligence and
emotional decisions.  He put weak managers in place.  He surrounded himself
with people who think like him.  He ran the place like a damn family
business.  None of that can be explained away by a political platform.

I truly hope a change of course in Washington can put a spotlight on as much
bad decision making as possible, to head off any more stacking of the deck,
and to take advantage of a CYA window for a bilateral Congress to try to set
some things right.


Dave B


On 11/11/06, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
>
> "dumb rhetoric" - would that be things like "6 years of mismanagement
> (with two more to go).
> I think the thing that galls me the most when I see things like that is
> the fact that after 4 years, he not only got to keep his job, he got it by
> more votes and a larger margin than the first time around.
>
> Guys, the one you didn't want being in charge does NOT amount to
> "mismanagement".
>
> The guy who won doing things the way he said he was going to, although it
> may be unheard of in politics these days, is NOT mismanagement.
>
>
> Herb Parsons
>
> S/V O'Jure
> 1976 O'Day 25
> Lake Grapevine, N TX
>
> S/V Reve de Papa
> 1971 Coronado 35
> Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Coast
>
> >>> dwbrad at gmail.com 11/11/2006 12:30:14 pm >>>
> Hmm.  It seems to me that 6 years of mismanagement (with two more to go)
> warrants an evaluation.  I sure hope they start now in what is sure to be
> a
> long process of "unstacking the deck."  It sure would be nice if they
> could
> keep the dumb rhetoric to a minimum while doing it, but that's probably
> too
> much to hope for, and to me not all that important.
>
> Dave B.
>
>
> On 11/11/06, Herb Parsons <hparsons at parsonsys.com> wrote:
> >
> > That's his version of "bi-partisanship" and "returning civility to the
> > Congress".
> >
> > So, instead of working on "fixing all those wrongs" they say, the Dems
> are
> > going to concentrate on a little payback for Clinton.
> >
> >
> > Herb Parsons
> >
> > S/V O'Jure
> > 1976 O'Day 25
> > Lake Grapevine, N TX
> >
> > S/V Reve de Papa
> > 1971 Coronado 35
> > Lake Pontchartrain, Louisiana Coast
> >
> > >>> R22RumRunner at aol.com 11/10/2006 7:32:15 pm >>>
> >
> > LOS ANGELES - The Democratic  congressman who will investigate the Bush
> > administration's running of the  government says there are so many areas
> > of
> > possible wrongdoing, his biggest  problem will be deciding which ones to
> > pursue.
> > There's the response to Hurricane  Katrina, government contracting in
> Iraq
> > and on homeland security, political  interference in regulatory
> decisions
> > by the
> > Environmental Protection Agency and  the Food and Drug Administration,
> and
> > allegations of war profiteering, Rep.  Henry Waxman, D-Calif., told the
> > Los
> > Angeles Chamber of Commerce.
> > "I'm going to have an interesting  time because the Government Reform
> > Committee has jurisdiction over everything,"  Waxman said Friday, three
> > days after
> > his party's capture of Congress put him in  line to chair the panel.
> "The
> > most
> > difficult thing will be to pick and  choose."
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>
>
>
> --
> David Bradley
> +1.206.225.7793
> dwbrad at gmail.com
> __________________________________________________
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>
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-- 
David Bradley
+1.206.225.7793
dwbrad at gmail.com


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