“The Greatness that is Janet Napolitano”
[Guest post by DRJ]
Mickey Kaus asks a simple question: “Wherein Lies the Greatness of Janet Napolitano” that leads so many to defend her missteps? Examples below:
Senator Joe Lieberman agrees she is the right person for the job.
Senator Susan Collins thought her “initial comments were bizarre and inappropriate … It baffled me that she said that the system worked very, very smoothly when clearly it did not. Nevertheless, I believe that Secretary Napolitano is working very hard, and she will cooperate with our efforts to ensure that these breaches will not happen again.”
Former homeland security chief Michael Chertoff commends her “good skill set,” “great experience,” and believes “her heart is in the right place. *** I heartily endorse her.”
Kaus wonders if “America’s bureaucratic capital simply overvalue those whose first instinct is to defend their bureaucracy.” I’m with Tom Maguire: Beats me.
— DRJ
Don’t be dissing future Supreme Court Justice Janet Napolitano. The system works. It’s not some man-caused disaster. Heh.
daleyrocks (718861) — 1/5/2010 @ 10:56 pm“…future Supreme Court Justice Janet Napolitano…”
That sound you hear is John Marshall spinning in his grave.
AD - RtR/OS! (9812f2) — 1/5/2010 @ 11:40 pmThis is just an extension of Bush’s “You’re doing a heckuva job, Brownie” mentality. There are lots of behind-the-scenes bureaucrats who work hard and do an outstanding job for us every day, and there are even some departmental and agency heads who are highly competent. The Janet Napolitanos of the world and their enablers, on the other hand, like to flatter themselves with the notion that they could be wealthy captains of industry were it not for their noble choice of “a public life,” and therefore we are scarcely deserving of their beneficence and have absolutely no right to criticize the job that they are doing.
JVW (8704f2) — 1/5/2010 @ 11:52 pmJaNap is living proof of the insight driving my dictum “Ignorance is bliss, and I’m surrounded by happy people.”
of course, between her dumb ass and Ear Leader, it’s hard to tell who’s in the lead to hit rock bottom first.
the only sure bet is that, when they do, the next step will be high explosives and drilling equipment. %-)
redc1c4 (fb8750) — 1/6/2010 @ 12:01 amJanet Incompatano is just another in a long line of proofs that The Peter Principle does exist, to the detriment of all orginizations.
AD - RtR/OS! (9812f2) — 1/6/2010 @ 12:11 amThe tragedy results when those that should know better, double down on their mistake by kicking the offender upstairs into what they believe to be a safe sinecure, but one that allows the person to have an even larger bad effect on the orginization.
If Janet Incompatano were assigned to run a public-law office on an Indian Reservation, within six months we would have Little Big Horn again.
This bitch is a true representative of Obama’s cabinet.
Krusher (fad639) — 1/6/2010 @ 3:18 amSocialistic morons………….
Isn’t this just bureaucrats, pols, and their ilk refusing to speak ill of a Member of the Club who is suddenly in trouble? “There but for the grace of God….” Physicians, lawyers, journalists do it, don’t they? Webloggers less so, methinks. Meanwhile…IMHO we have to give up this insane notion that a law degree qualifies a person to do just about any job. JaNap is in over her head (remember that silly report naming returning vets as potential terrorists?), was a political choice, needs to fall on her, er, pinking shears.
Benson (d2c6b7) — 1/6/2010 @ 3:26 amFor a politician or a bureaucrat to point out the fact that a person with authority appointed an obvious incompent brings into question their own competence. As long as everyone continues to believe in the fiction of “the Emperor’s New Clothes,” they are also safe.
BTW, JVW, maybe you can help me? You must know something I don’t know in order to use the Bush comment “You are doing a heckava job, Brownie,” as you did.
Now, I am fairly well informed about the sitiation in New Orleans before, during and after Katrina. I am retired and spent most of my time watching the news channels and reading the papers. I have had practical experience in both the private and public sector in line and staff positions.
For all my experience and dilligence in watching the Katrina disaster unfold, I have not been able to find any hard information regarding any FEMA failure. Please enlighten me.
IMHO, Michael Brown & FEMA were the scapegoat of the politicians and the MSM since the two obvious suspects were a black mayor and a Democratic woman governor.
Longwalker (996c34) — 1/6/2010 @ 4:45 am“good skill set,” “great experience,” ????
davod (bce08f) — 1/6/2010 @ 5:41 amThere is an analogy here with racing sailboats. The most popular person in any sailboat race is the owner of the boat that always comes in last. Where would the rest of us be if we didn’t have one guy who is worse than we are ? Janet is popular with hacks because she is living proof that they are more competent than somebody. The last thing a sailboat owner wants to do is convince the guy who always comes in last to quit racing. If he did, I might be last next time ! Napolitano will always have friends. She is failure insurance for everybody else.
Mike K (2cf494) — 1/6/2010 @ 7:09 am#10, Mike K has a point, except that in Obama’s Administration there’s an abundance of the sort of insurence Napolitano represents.
I think Janet’s walking around now with a fork sticking in her back. She’s done. Her blatant incompetence reinforces Team Obama’s dominant narrative. This Administration can’t manage the economy, the war on terror, GITMO, the Climate hoax, Cash for Clunkers, or even the guest list for a dinner party.
Napolitano has embarrassed Obama for the last time and unlike Joe Biden, she can be let go.
ropelight (32a1ea) — 1/6/2010 @ 7:22 amMy guess is that Dear Leader keeps Napolitano around this year to try and get immigration reform through Congress. Look for more fawning puff pieces in the MSM about how Super Janet as Governor of a border state was a “staunch advocate of controlling the borders” while at the same time showing “great compassion” for those who “risked their safety in order to better their lives.” It will also allow them to take a shot at the Bush Administration by claiming that in Arizona she was much more effective than federal agents in developing “smart, humane” plans for border control.
Then, when immigration reform crashes and burns because Super Janet can’t corral wavering Democrats, Dear Leader will show her the underside of the bus. This will be sometime in August or September, just before the 2010 elections.
JVW (8704f2) — 1/6/2010 @ 8:48 amI think her value is that she’s utterly loyal, smart enough to do the job if nothing happens, and dumb enough to jettison if she messes up. Which she has. Immigration was supposed to be her strong suit, but the crippled economy has put that issue on the bench.
KateC (7f3e3d) — 1/6/2010 @ 10:13 am“… Super Janet as Governor of a border state was a “staunch advocate of controlling the borders…” ..etc…etc…
And, along with this line of pablum is the continuing demonization of Sheriff Joe, who fought tooth & nail with Gov. Napolitano over enforcement of AZ’s laws against illegal aliens, laws that the Gov had signed.
Perhaps they need her to hang on until the Nov election so that they can replace her with ex-Sen Dodd.
AD - RtR/OS! (b6fff3) — 1/6/2010 @ 10:20 amThe only reason that I can think of that anyone would think Janet Napolitano represents a competent leader is that they aren’t from Arizona. When I heard that she was slated for the DHS position I had mixed feelings of great joy that we could finally catch a view of her enormous posterior leaving Arizona and guilt that we would be letting her loose on the rest of the country. As our govenor in Arizona, she is responsible for leaving us with the worst deficit of any state in the nation due to her policies of spending more than was in the budget and even after the housing meltdown had started pushing a budget that continued to spend more than the projected revenue, emptying our rainy day fund to pay for a “welfare” heavy budget. Now I’m scared she will resign from DHS to return to Arizona to run for a Senate seat!
PRM (310ebf) — 1/6/2010 @ 11:32 amI hadn’t thought of it this way.
My problem was that the entire administration – through Napolitano, Gibbs, and silent Hillary! – all circled the wagons and the only message we got was “the system worked.” That’s just bad instinct in terms of what the American people want to hear and see when Al-Qaeda terrorists try to blow up a plane on Christmas. It’s amazing they could be that tone-deaf. It took Obama what – 10 days – to say something approaching the right thing?
He got the note on Al Qaeda, right? Bush left it in the desk or something?
carlitos (057200) — 1/6/2010 @ 11:45 amNapolitano is what people are thinking about when they say ‘good enough for government work’.
MU789 (514c52) — 1/6/2010 @ 2:40 pmJaNap is too big to fail.
cave16 (710dbc) — 1/6/2010 @ 9:08 pmhttp://www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern01072010.html
has an interesting look at some of the factors contributing to the holes in security
voiceofreason2 (4e6389) — 1/7/2010 @ 6:42 pm