Monday, September 26, 2005

New Beltway Games

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman writes that there are two new Washington games: "Find the Brownie" and "Two Degrees of Jack Abramoff"
The objective in Find the Brownie is to find an obscure but important government job held by someone whose only apparent qualifications for that job are political loyalty and personal connections. It's inspired by President Bush's praise, four days after Katrina hit, for the hapless Michael Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." There are a lot of Brownies. As Time magazine puts it in its latest issue, "Bush has gone further than most presidents to put political stalwarts in some of the most important government jobs you've never heard of."
The object of the other game is to find how many people in Washington are connected to Jack Abramoff by employment. Abramoff is a prominent Republican who was indicted last month on charges of fraud.

Related: "Cronies at the Till" (New York Times editorial, 27 September)

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The opinions stated here are my own and in no way reflect those of Brigham Young University, its students, faculty, or sponsoring institution.