Patronizing the public

I work for the Federal government. I got my job by competing. I took tests to get hired, and I have competed for every job I have held, up to and including this one. Most Federal employees are like me. Yes, we have political appointees, and yes sometimes they burrow into the bureaucracy, but they are few. In my own agency, only the Commissioner is an appointee and every single one has returned to private industry at the end of their term.

We have strong rules about who works for who. Spouses cannot work for spouses. I had to take a temporaray transfer to accommodate the working spouse of an agency attorney because she couldn't work in his organization. I wasn't happy about it, but I understood why it happened. When you apply for a job you have to list family members who are federal employees as it would not do for you to be working in the same group or branch.

The bottom line is that for all its faults, the Federal bureaucracy is not a patronage pool, with vacancies ready at the drop of a check or a name.

Todd Stroger apparently relies more on friends and family rather than professionals where Cook County jobs are concerned. In this he is merely continuing a longstanding, though odious, tradition. Yet this is the same guy we are supposed to believe (per Messrs Fagus and Moore) can be counted on to fix what's wrong with the county government. Why should I believe that when Todd's M.O. is "business as usual?"

Todd has kept clear of the budget brouhaha after announcing his desire for cuts. At the same time he has engaged in personnel moves that strain credulity. I'd be willing to bet a drink at your favorite watering hole that he won't veto any proposed tax hikes. That's why he is steering clear of the fracas, so he can come up with some excuse for not forcing the issue of cleaning up and transforming county government. He'll go along with the hike, claiming he did his best but the commissioners know best. Right. This is the Great Leader Messrs Fagus and Moore want us to believe in. I don't think so.

Aside from harping on his record, Moore has yet to declare that getting behind Toddy was a mistake. Moore is a machine man, spouting the machine's message. The key to that message is patting the public on its collective head, speaking soothing words, while continuting "business as usual."

Time for a change.