Defining Incompetence Down--Bush Succeeds Where Others Have Failed

This Administration is defining incompetence down. The latest "Oh My God" over some terrorist being "taken off the books" has only one component that is bad: incompetence. It's at times like this we all miss a guy like the late Senator Patrick Moynahan.

In his famous essay, Defining Deviancy Down, he was talking about crime. Crime, like incompetence, has always been with us. By defining what is not criminal we can define what IS. As we gradually allow certain crimes to be OK, and what are OK under certain circumstances, we "define deviancy down".

With Bush we have the luxury of defining incompetence down. Bad intel? Keep the guy on the job, he's competent. Bad SEC and stock fraud? Keep the SEC guy on the job, he's competent. Total lack of airport secutity? Keep Minetta on the job. And so on.

In the current redefinition, we had a terrorist so important that they took him "off the books" and then did nothing with him, like in nada, bupkis, and zilch. There are two ways to delegate authority; give people free rein and let them do their jobs while retaining accountability for the results and checking on them; the second is give them free rein and then walk away. Reagan understood the first, Bush has thoroughly mastered the second; in fact no President in our history as mastered it so well. The main problem is that we have a president, much like Carter, who had no experience contacting national leaders on his own, til he ran for president. He had no contact with the people he would appoint to positions in government. In contrast, Reagan had been going around the country for years. There was nobody he didn't know and nobody who didn't know him. He could select the best. Bush ran for president as an afterthought, designated to run by "the party" because of his huge election victories in Texas and only because of his perceived electiveness. So this is what we got. A guy who knows nobody competent; a guy who had to consult with "elder statesmen" from prior administrations in order to appoint people to do jobs he didn't understand. And our guys die.

Norm Minetta is now competency. How's that for down?