More attention has been paid of late to cronyism within the Bush administration, and to the actions of political appointees due to the latest revelations involving George Deutsch and NASA. More can be read about his crusade to discredit the Big Bang, and the fact that he just resigned, at gobacktotexas' diary
here.
Another interesting past revelation concerned the efforts of political appointees in the Federal Park Service to make sure new civil service ("G-Level") employees pass a political screening "for adherence to Interior Secretary Gail Norton's personal `philosophy,' and to Bush's general political agenda, to be eligible for senior management or program-director positions," according to LeanLeft.com.
The latest evidence of cronyism and a political purge is contained in this Knight Ridder article, "State Department Sees Exodus of Weapons Experts."
More on the flip...
The KR article notes that:
State Department officials appointed by President Bush have sidelined key career weapons experts and replaced them with less experienced political operatives who share the White House and Pentagon's distrust of international negotiations and treaties.
The reorganization of the department's arms control and international security bureaus was intended to help it better deal with 21st-century threats. Instead, it's thrown the agency into turmoil and produced an exodus of experts with decades of experience in nuclear arms, chemical weapons and related matters, according to 11 current and former officials and documents obtained by Knight Ridder.
So, it is clear there has been a political purge of people that are dealing with the very issue that is at the heart of the Iran controversy. Who would be willing to lead such a purge? Someone we are familiar with from the the Plame controversy:
The reorganization was conducted largely in secret by a panel of four political appointees. A career expert was allowed to join the group only after most decisions had been made. Its work was overseen by Frederick Fleitz, a CIA officer who was detailed to the State Department as senior adviser to former Undersecretary of State John Bolton, a critic of arms agreements and international organizations.
But, Fleitz did not do the actual dirty work. The KR article reveals a crony who had a hand in making sure newly created job openings were filled with loyal Busheviks:
Thomas Lehrman, a political appointee who heads the new office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism, advertised outside the State Department to fill jobs in his office. In an e-mail to universities and research centers, a copy of which was obtained by Knight Ridder, he listed loyalty to Bush and Rice's priorities as a qualification.
Lehrman reportedly recalled the e-mail after it was pointed out that such loyalty tests are improper.
And, true to form, since apparently journalists have not discovered what Google is yet, the article does not attempt to explore who this zampolit is. Turns out that Lehrman has a very interesting background.
Mr. Lehrman is a co-founder of the Gerson Lehrman Group, formed in 1998 "as a publisher of guides that explained how industries function," according to the firm's website. The company quickly developed into a large business consulting firm, with "more than 100,000 members in its various Councils, which cover almost every professional discipline and industry."
Fortunately for Gerson and Lehrman, Gerson was a fixture in the Republican political scene and had built up impressive Neoconservative credentials very early on. As this New York Observer article notes:
Mr. Gerson began building his network back at Williams College, where he was president of the Republican Club and edited the conservative Williams Observer, and where he pored over the classics of his forebears--back issues of Commentary and works by Irving Kristol, George Will and Norman Podhoretz.
After his sophomore year, Mr. Gerson interned at Policy Review, the Washington-based magazine of the conservative Heritage Foundation. By senior year, he was writing his thesis on the history of neoconservative thought--and parlaying his research into meetings with Mr. Podhoretz and Mr. Kristol, and eventually a book contract with Madison Books.
...
After his senior year, Mr. Gerson deferred his acceptance to Yale Law School to teach at an inner-city Catholic high school in Jersey City. In 1995, he was published in Commentary, writing about his teaching experience--"one of the dreams of my short lifetime," he said. Weeks later, David Brooks, then at The Wall Street Journal, ran it as an op-ed piece.
It was three years later that Gerson formed GLG with Lehrman, who was at Yale Law School at the time, according to the Observer article. That means both men are relatively young. Today, they would be in their early 30's (the article notes that Gerson was 31 at the time of publishing).
To have a successful consulting business before even cracking 30 is impressive enough. But, Mr. Lehrman's career path is even more...astonishing. Gerson was the mover and shaker in the Neocon circles. In the Observer article, he describes Tucker Carlson as one of his "very best friends." Bill Kristol also states that he has known Gerson for 10 years, and adds, "In New York, I can't tell you how many times I'll go to an event and talk to someone, and they'll turn out be a friend of Mark Gerson."
This must have been very very helpful for Lehrman, because he ended up leaving private life and began working at the Department of State as a Foreign Affairs Officer. And, then, in 2004, Lehrman was added to the Professional Staff for the Silbermann Robb Commission. The Commission's website describes him thusly:
Thomas Lehrman
Intelligence Professional. Foreign Affairs Officer at the Department of State with a background in counter-proliferation and experience on the Proliferation Security Initiative. Formerly, co-founder and co-Chief Executive Officer of an information services and consulting company serving the financial services industry.
So, to sum up: we have the business partner of a long-time, politically connected Neoconservative, barely in his 30's, having worked at the State Department for no more that three years, appointed to the staff of the Silbermann Robb Commission because his "background in counter-proliferation and experience on the Proliferation Security Initiative."
Is it possible that this young man, with a business background, a law degree and only three years at the State Department was experienced enough to be added to the Commission to share his great wisdom? I doubt it.
But, the the brevity of Lehrman's resume certainly didn't harm his meteoric rise within the State Department. As the KR article notes, he is now head of a new, and vitally important office, the Office of Weapons of Mass Destruction Terrorism. Indeed, this is confirmed by a web page at State which is currently not available. But, thanks again to Google, we can see the original page here. It notes:
This office will develop policy and plans, direct initiatives, and coordinate partner capacity building activities to prevent, protect against, and respond to the threat or use of weapons of mass destruction by terrorists. This office will work closely with regional and functional bureaus of the Department to ensure that WMD terrorism strategic priorities are integrated into ongoing bilateral, regional, and multilateral diplomatic efforts.
The entire description of the Office is quite long and complex. It is certainly an office that is important to national security, and absolutely one that should be run by an experienced State Department employee. But, it appears that political loyalty to President Bush and Secretary Rice are more important than experience.
By my count, this is the fourth major example of political purges in the Bush administration if we include how Porter Goss has run the CIA. On top of that, Lehrman is clearly an unqualified crony.
This makes a patern - a very disturbing pattern. The story of Mr. Deutsch is amusing. The story of Mr. Lehrman is deadly serious and could have major national security implications, especially if he is part of a much larger political purge, as the KR article suggests.
This is unacceptable. Our country has civil service laws and other protection to prevent the sorts of actions that Lehrman has taken at State. More attention needs to be drawn to this issue and there needs to be an effort to uncover more cronies and purges.