Does the recent imbroglio over Mitt Romney’s hand-picked Turnpike Chairman and transportation secretary John Cogliano’s rehiring of Bechtel to fix the tunnel they broke remind you of anything?
Let’s compare RomneyCo’s response to this string of embarrassing stories to BushCo’s response to “heckuva job, Brownie.”
- Major disaster occurs.
- Government agency screws up response to a fare-thee-well.
- Turns out the guy running the agency was a hack who wasn’t really qualified for the job.
- Chief executive had praised hack before screw-ups became widely known.
- Hack’s screw-ups become so obvious as to become major embarrassment for administration.
- Hack is hung out to dry.
- Hack “resigns” (i.e., is fired).
- BushCo
- RomneyCo – ???
Only RomneyCo’s last step is missing. Bets on when that shoe drops?
Please share widely!
Delightful parallels, and nicely presented.
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I can’t help pointing out a couple of differences between Brownie and Johnny (Or how about “Coggie”?).
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Whatever his initial credentials, Coggie did come up through the agency and the bureaucracy. Brownie went straight to the director position with no background. Brownie was the point man before and during the hurricane, and was worrying about clean shirts and dinnertime during the critical early response phase. I don’t believe that Cogliano was calling the shots during the early stages (although the Republican Governors’ Club certainly has been).
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None of this is intended to detract from your larger point, though: Romney’s choice for the new Top CA/T appears to be a business-as-usual guy who is part of the Big Dig Culture that pervades Massachusetts Transportation agencies. The “new” leader was either not paying attention to whether his actions were achieving real reform of the process, or he was part of the deliberate “pay no attention to the man behind the curtain” approach that this arrogant bureaucracy uses in so much of its day-to-day administrative activities. Taxpayers and regular folks just are not supposed to invade the agency’s privacy by demanding competence and accountability.
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Prediction: Coggie will be around long after Romney has moved back to Utah (“for his wife’s health”).
That’s some great analysis David, although I think the jury is still out on Cogliano. He’s got an extremely difficult job and deserves at least on mulligan.
I can just see it now:
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“Mitt Romney wanted control of the Big Dig after a tragedy. He authorized me to do everything and then left town to raise money for his own ambitions. Mitt Romney doesn’t care about doing his job. Mitt Romney cares about Mitt Romney. When he came back, he blamed me for everything.”
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Voiceover:
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Mitt Romney says he wants to be president, but who does he really want to serve?
So one can see the references without clicking through every one? Not that I doubt that each one contains a remarkably pithy and well-chosen citation: I just want to get to them faster. (And note that I do have time to write a plaintive comment, even though I claim not be able to click through a few links).
Why bother even firing a guy who has been a party loyalist for years when he will be out of the job come innauguration.