Monday, March 13, 2006

Fortuitous Timing

Critics seldom are proved right within 24 hours, but you can chalk one up for conservative Bruce Bartlett.

WaPo's Dana Milbank published a somewhat flip article last week about the Cato Institute's forum concerning the Bush administration, where "Everyone's a Critic." Buried midway down the column was this observation by Bartlett:
"He also said many fellow conservatives don't know about the "quite dreadful" traits of the administration, such as the absence of "anybody who does any serious analysis" on policy issues."
No further details were offered. But just one day later, the White House's top domestic policy advisor, Claude Allen, was arrested by Maryland police for stealing "merchandise from Target and other stores, in what police said was a scheme that lasted months and netted him more than $5,000 in goods that ranged from a Bose home theater system to $2.50 trinkets."

Now we know why no one at the White House has been analyzing domestic policy issues. They've been too busy shoplifting. The larger question is, what crimes have the Bush administration's foreign policy advisors been up to?

Amplification

The blog Neconned points out that "Allen had the highest salary of any employee in the White House, tied with Karl Rove, Andrew Card, and Stephen Hadley, among others. He was earning $161,000 a year."

And, after Bush nominated Allen for a federal judgship "the Washington Post labeled him the embodiment of 'conservative values.'

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good to have you back. Missed you. Can you get information on the status of the Class action suit against Citizens. Mierzwa Vs ?

Beach Blogger said...

Thanks for the welcome back.

Re: Citizens Property Insurance vs. Scylla -- the class action case filed in Tallahassee and now on appeal to the First District Court of Appeals -- it looks like the reply brief was filed last week. If oral argument has been scheduled, it should take place soon. A decision is possible within the next three or four months.

After that, no doubt, there will be an attempt to appeal to the state supreme court. With luck, the matter should be finally decided before the '06 hurricane season is over.