Going Out of Business

When I started this blog, I wasn't sure exactly where it was going to go or evolve.

At the very least, I wanted to make a small contribution during this political season to promoting a better understanding of the political process for those who were trying to make some difficult choices in the election.

It was never my desire to guide anyone's choice or substitute my opinion for theirs. It was only to provide some counsel to those looking to deepen their own understanding and make better choices.

This was important to me, because, as I've stated, we've got the system we deserve in my view. If voters were better informed, politicians would respond by raising the tenor of the political discourse. Now that the election is over, however, it seems to me that the main reason for this blog (even if I didn't realize what it was when I began this summer) has come to an end. Accordingly, I plan to cease my posts.

While writing this blog, I have learned a good deal about the world of blogs. It's a lot like business. You need a product for the market and you need to work hard at something you're passionate about to attract readers, whose blog reading time is as limited as customers' cash.

With the election over, I don't think there is a market right now for the type of blog I'd want to have if I continued blogging here. Most people either want more depth on specific issues than I can devote with my other commitments, a more narrow focus than suits my interests, or more partisanship (which I am unwilling to provide).

So, thanks for reading. It's been fun.

DC Lawyer

Election Day - Time to Vote

Freedom is Not Free - Please Don't Took Yours for Granted

A Government Ill Executed - Posts of Honor

In chapter 3 of A Government Ill Executed, Paul Light turns to the state of federal political appointees.

Unlike the civil service, political appointees come and go with different administrations, and generally serve at the pleasure of the President. They play an important role in the executive branch as intermediaries between the President and the unelected civil service who are on the front lines. As Light describes them, political appointees "play a central role is managing the chain of command, interpreting legislation, overseeing regulations, and faithfully executing the laws." Without a competent person in these roles, the business of the executive branch can slow or even come to a halt.

Light is concerned that the process by which political appointees are identified, recruited, appointed and, if necessary, confirmed is broken. What is needed is a "fast, simple and fair appointments process." What we have, however, has been best characterized as "nasty and brutish without being short." This is due to "needless forms, needless delays" and the sense by all involved that a candidate is "innocent until nominated." As a result, the management of the executive branch suffers as mediocre appointees fill these posts, or they remain unfilled for large amounts of time.

Appointment

Light notes that extensive screening and many questionnaires appointees must fill out. They are unnecessarily time consuming, requiring the candidate to spend inordinate amounts of time locating every last address and phone number since college. Light estimates that a candidate will have had to answer 240 separate questions, including 61 on personal and family background, 32 on tax and finances, 35 on legal proceedings,7 on public and organizational activities and even one on the people they hired for child care.

Appointees are generally left to navigate these with little help from the White House. Outside help from lawyers and accountants must be paid for by the appointee. They then have to wait while overworked investigators from various federal agencies confirm their accuracy. The process keeps getting longer. President Kennedy took just two months to get his Senate confirmed appointments finished. The current President took nine.

Confirmation

Light does not discuss the Senate's confirmation process in much detail, which is too bad because it's every bit as bad. Senate committees have their own questionnaires, sets of interviews, etc. in preparation for a confirmation hearings. The hearing itself is generally a breeze in comparison to filling out the forms and going through the staff interview. Once that is completed, the committee needs to schedule a hearing, which requires Senators' attendance. Merely getting a confirmation hearing on the calendar can delay the appointments for months.

Lessons Learned

Light's research had revealed that appointees are most motivated by the honor and chance to serve their country. Further, they are motivated by the future leadership opportunities that holding a political appointment will provide. The federal government is unlikely to offer pay that is comparable to the private or even non-profit sectors. Presidents can provide more support for their appointees through the Office of White House personnel, which all too often doesn't act as if it really cares whether someone appointed ever takes the position. Forms and questionnaires can be streamlined.

Here, I'll add a few suggestions of my own, having staffed several confirmations in the Senate. The White House and Senate staff should devise uniform questionnaires to streamline the appointment process. Further, the number of appointees subject to Senate confirmation is ridiculous and it seems every time Congress creates a new position, the Senate insists it confirms it to gain leverage in negotiations with the White House even when the particular appointment isn't controversial. The President should agree to reduce the number of appointees (leaving more work to the civil service) in exchange for the Senate's agreeing to reduce the number of appointees subject to Senate confirmation.

I can dream, can't I?

Internet Donations

The Internet has made contributing to political campaigns very easy.  

But has it made it too easy?  

Specifically, there are reports surfacing that Senator Obama's campaign has been the recipient of illegal contributions from those ineligible to contribute, or those making contributions under false names, thereby evading Federal Election Commission (FEC) rules.

While this was just something percolating on conservative web blogs, I hadn't paid too much attention.  However, the story has now gone mainstream.

The LA Times reports:

Obama has revolutionized campaign fundraising, employing the Internet to tap into more donors than any candidate in history. The campaign has reported $160 million in contributions from donors of $200 or less, more than a third of the $458 million raised. But as Obama sets records, his fundraising has come under increased scrutiny.

The Democratic candidate's donors also include "Derty Poiiuy," an individual with a scatological sense of humor who has given $950. "Mong Kong" has contributed $1,065 and lists an address in a nonexistent city. "Fornari USA" gave $800 and listed the address of an apparel store of that name near San Francisco.

The Washington Post has a more disturbing take:

Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign is allowing donors to use largely untraceable prepaid credit cards that could potentially be used to evade limits on how much an individual is legally allowed to give or to mask a contributor's identity, campaign officials confirmed. Faced with a huge influx of donations over the Internet, the campaign has also chosen not to use basic security measures to prevent potentially illegal or anonymous contributions from flowing into its accounts, aides acknowledged. Instead, the campaign is scrutinizing its books for improper donations after the money has been deposited.

There's a big difference between a campaign that receives illegal donations despite taking reasonable precautions against them. If the Post is correct, then, the Obama campaign has failed to live up to its obligations to take them. Even worse is the possibility that this is something more than negligence, although there has been no proof of that.

Given that one of the reasons to vote for Obama has been his very well run campaign, this is disturbing news in any case. The campaign needs to come clean immediately about what went wrong, why, and discipline those responsible. If it sweeps it under the rug, it will all come out during the transition, making it very hard for Obama's administration to get off to a strong start.

Weekend Homework

"Your every voter, as surely as your chief magistrate, exercises a public trust."

-Grover Cleveland

As a voter, you have a public trust. It is your duty to cast an informed ballot. You owe it to those who died so that you might have it. You owe it to your countrymen who will have to live with the consequences of your collective votes. I would argue that its less important who you vote for than that your vote is informed.

That means some work for this weekend. Think not? Perhaps you know who you'll vote for for President. Great. Can you give me three reasons? If not, perhaps you need to think about it a little more.

Even if you can provide a cogent reason for your presidential vote. If so, who are you voting for for Congress? The state legislature? The school board? Why? What are the ballot questions up for a vote? Are you voting yes or no? Why?

See. You do have some homework. So do I.

The local papers likely have a voting guide that will provide some information about the candidates, and most office seekers now have websites - even guys running for the legislature and the school board. Still stumped? Look at your neighbors houses. Do you see some lawn signs? Ask them why they are supporing that candidate. Not every political discussion needs to turn into a debate.

Reality Will Set In...

David Von Drehle at Time makes a good point. During the campaign, the candidates speak of themselves in a vacuum, as if the President were an all powerful monarch, rather than the chief executive in a constitutional republic:

the men who would be President have been running for months in a parallel universe, a place where a Chief Executive changes laws by waving a hand and reorders society at the stroke of a pen. "When I am President," the candidates declare — and off they go into dreamspeak, describing tax codes down to the last decimal point and sketching health-care reforms far beyond the power of any single person to enact. In their imaginary, reassuring cosmos, America is always a mere 10 years — and one new President — away from energy independence. And the ills of the federal budget can be cured simply by having an eagle-eyed leader go through it line by line.

After the election, however, they need to come back to work with a Congress that will have a different view of the world and a different agenda (less so when the same party runs both, but the differences never disappear all together):

In an instant, the winner is sucked through a wormhole back into the real world. A world in which Congress, not the President, writes all the laws and gets the last word on the budget. Where consumers decide which cars to drive and how many lights to burn. And where the clash of powerful interest groups makes it easier to do nothing about big problems than to tackle them.

Von Drehle goes on to make an informed speculation about what each candidates' presidency might look like in what the situation is likely to look like in Washington with a Democratic Congress, a tottering economy and the many other constraints the next President will need to deal with. It's worth reading in its entirety before you vote (you are voting, right?) on Tuesday.

A Public Office is A Public Trust

Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) was convicted by a jury yesterday of lying on his disclosure forms.

The lies concerned certain gifts that were given by Alaskan business interests that he failed to disclose. Because it's generally not very well reported, I'll just say that there was no allegation that Stevens actually did anything in return for them (something implied when the papers claim he was convicted of "corruption").

The trial involved a fair amount of controversy, including an element of prosecutorial incompetence if not outright misconduct. Accordingly, Stevens is fighting on in bid for reelection. He will likely remain free pending appeal.

Stevens certainly does have a right to his appeal, and may very well win. However, the people of Alaska are entitled to honest government and to rest assured that they have it. Stevens should have stepped aside given his indictment and let someone else carry the flag for the Republican Party, which has been damaged as a multitude of GOP Congressman have now been convicted for not fulfilling their ethical duties as Members of Congress.

The Washington Post's editorial captures an important, larger lesson from the Stevens case:

There is a larger lesson in the Stevens prosecution, which is the sense of entitlement to which public officials can fall prey and, perhaps among the most powerful, a sense of imperviousness to the ordinary rules. After all, they may tell themselves, they work long hours for far less money than they could make in the private sector. After all, they have done so much for their constituents... This is a mind-set that has been on sad display all too often in Washington in recent years, and, in truth, it is something that not even the most stringent ethics laws can fully protect against... Mr. Stevens worked to give so much to his state, but he forgot the most important duty he owed its citizens: honest service.
(emphasis added)