Kudos to Dana Milbank for cataloging the rash of Bush administration family hirings in his recent Washington Post column (and he had the deftness not to even mention George W.'s own political head start). The inventory reads a bit like a scatterbrained rendition of "Dem Bones," with brothers and daughters and sons-in-law all connected in a government body united almost as much by DNA as by political ties.
Milbank balked, however, at making any weighty accusations, preferring to allow the officials in question to joke nervously -- or complacently, it's sometimes hard to tell -- about their paths to power. Heidi Cruz, a senior official in the U.S. Trade Representative's office, says being married to the FTC's director of policy planning is "a bit like having adjoining booths in the county fair." How very cozy. Does she give family discounts on the pumpkin pies, one wonders?
Only once does Milbank mention the "N" word, pointing out that public officials are prohibited by federal law from giving a leg up to relatives in any agency in which they are "serving or over which [they] exercise jurisdiction or control." But he lets the administration off the hook by allowing them to make the argument that the well-connected employees are also well qualified. Elizabeth Cheney may be Dick's daughter, the State Department says, but she's good at her job. This is completely irrelevant, of course. Nepotism has nothing to do with one's qualifications for a position. It has to do with getting hired because of who you spend the holidays with.
TAP has already shown how senatorial privilege apparently extends to having your son confirmed for public office without a hitch. And now this. Blood is thicker than water, but if folks in the Bush administration can hire their family members with nary a squawk from the opposition, then we in the other camp are just plain thick.
