Party on… we’ll bring the Snow

That would, of course, be the Bush Administration’s announcement (along with the resignation of VA Secretary Anthony Principi) of the retention of Treasury Secretary John Snow. As you will recall, Snow replaced ousted SecTreas Paul O’Neill immediately after the mid-term elections. He did so not merely because O’Neill actually wanted to implement responsible economic policies whereas Snow prefers to adopt the “Sergeant Schultz” (I know NOTHING) attitude so desirable in a Bush cabinet officer. Far worse than that, O’Neill risked upstaging the President, by touring Africa with Bono. Hence, he had to go, and was promptly shown the door (the only cabinet secretary so treated, before last month’s 51% mandate).
Anyway– there was speculation that Snow, too, would be tossed, for an even more lockstep yes-man. Apparently, the Bush Administration discovered that it had placed all of those in cabinet posts already, and hence, the economic forecast looks like… Snow. He joins Don “Support our Troops” Rumsfeld as the only confirmed cabinet retentions. At this point, 9 of 15 first term cabinet members are now out, while the only two (we know of) asked to stay on are Rumsfeld– architect of a disastrous defense policy and disastrous execution in Iraq that has resulted in thousands of unnecessary deaths, and Snow, if not the architect, at least the messenger of disastrous fiscal and overall economic policies that, if possible, are even more dangerous to our national security than Rumsfeld’s insanely bad defense policy.
But wait: we forgot completely that there are more cabinet secretaries (4, methinks), and IIRC, one of them is one Gail Norton, Secretary of the Interior (and I believe the EPA Administrator whose name escapes me is around somewhere, too). You see– while Rumsfeld is merrily making us vulnerable to foreign powers’ militaries (not to mention terrorists), and while Snow is merrily taking us toward economic destruction, Norton is making sure that the very air we breathe and water we breathe may be fouled unabated. To be fair to Ms. Norton, the Bush Administration’s infantile obstinance regarding global warming is a team affair.
In some ways, the new cabinet screams “party animals”; we have a Rummy, some Snow, and of course, Gonzales can bring the whips and chains while Condi plays the piano. But mostly, we have a cabinet that looks like America, at least the America that voted for a government where incompetence and mean-spiritedness are rewarded (not to mention blind loyalty of course, while all are pursuing suicidally insane policies).
The country wanted this. As I hinted a few months ago, the voting public might well decide it preferred clear and confident, though insanely bad policies, as opposed to John Kerry’s far murkier “I have a plan” (read “I have no clue, but at least I’m not likely to be worse than these guys, the worst crew we’ve ever had in this role.”) Not to worry, Senator Kerry: the Bush Administration seems to be doing its damndest to make sure that buyer’s regret sets in before Inauguration Day.
This may all work out somehow in ways that aren’t synonimous with “disaster”. One is just hard-pressed to ascertain how.