I was not jacked into the matrix on Saturday. I was reading fiction (new Tom Wolfe -- pretty good) and did a little Christmas shopping. Sunday night, folks are talking about Kerik's withdrawn nomination and I had to scramble to figure out what happened.
A Nanny problem? A Nanny-problem excuse to avoid all manner of nefarious things that would have come up in confirmation hearings? Rats Ass, boys -- I was already sleeping better at night knowing that we were gonna have one tough hombre running the (Orwellian-named) Dept. of Homeland Security.
Me and Hugh are disappointed.
If Tommy Franks had had a "nanny problem," would he have been allowed to command two of the greatest military operations in history?I am sorry to see Bernard Kerik withdraw from the confirmation process because I thought him uniquely suited to the urgency of the task --the sort of qualification that comes from a career in police work, actually having been there when the Towers fell, and service in Iraq. There aren't many people who bring that set of experiences, and thus genuine, first-person urgency to the task of homeland security.
I don't think that I am being partisan when I say that I am willing to overlook a bit of nanny-W4-ing to get a tough, New York cop on the beat in Homeland Security.
I agree completely. The fact that "everyone" cheats on the payroll taxes of their domestic help only underscores the fact that it is a system of "forced sharing," a.k.a. "theft." The sad part is that in this specific instance, someone DID call a cop and he had to bow out because he "broke the law." If he becomes the catalyst to reflect on and correct this "nannygate" insanity then he can stand proudly behind that single accomplishment.
Posted by: johngalt at December 13, 2004 01:13 PMFrederic Bastiat called this "unavoidable law."
There is dangerous opportunity for coercion when "everybody does it" because the government can perform capricious enforcement. Make the speed limit 5MPH down main street, then just hand out tickets to black people.
It should be comforting that Democrats (Zoe Baird, Kimba Wood) and Republicans (Linda Chavez, Bernard Kerik) have fallen but it’s not. I don’t know much about President Clinton’s appointments but Kerik’s a loss. Linda Chavez was worse than a loss, it was a setup Her soi disant domestic was actually a charity case whom Ms. Chavez kept alive – it was astonishing to have that backfire on her.
OK, new standard: anyone guilty of a tax infraction can't hold public office. That should clear out the halls of Congress nicely.
Posted by: Silence Dogood at December 13, 2004 03:24 PMThe Tom Wolfe book is excellent. Sometimes I feel like I need an anatomy text book to know what the f he's talking about.
Posted by: AlexC at December 14, 2004 04:25 AMAlex, did you see that he won the British Prize fro Bad Sex in Fiction: "But the hand that was what she tried to concentrate on, the hand, since it has the entire terrain of her torso to explore and not just the otorhinolaryngological caverns — oh, God, it was not just at the border where the flesh of the breast joins the pectoral sheath of the chest — no, the hand was cupping her entire right — Now!"
http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/36472.htm
Posted by: jk at December 14, 2004 09:09 AM