Dodd District Office Burglary (Update #1):

Assistant Police Chief Neil Dryfe, contacted later at his home, added, "our investigators assured us this burglary does not appear to be related to the recent rash of Republican criminal activity."

Brownie's Law strikes me as a terrible - and potentially unconstitutional - idea. Steve is quite right to note that it accomplishes very little. Good presidents make good appointments, whereas bad presidents are perfectly capable of ignoring the law entirely or of stretching any particular resume to fit the constraints of a job. The bottom line is that if a president chooses to act in bad faith, this law won't constrain him.

But that just explains why the law is as superfluous as the feel-good measure passed by Congress in 2006. It's dangerous in that it constrains the ability of the President to appoint the people he feels are best suited to a particular job. Sometimes, agencies actually need change; they benefit from the intrusion of someone whose experience is not directly related to the post that they hold. That introduces a fresh set of eyes, and can be a recipe for succesful reform. It's probably also unconstitutional; the courts have been extremely skeptical about the ability of congress to dictate the president's choices for confirmable posts. He has pretty much unfettered ability to nominate whomsoever he chooses; the senate can either confirm or deny those nominations. That's another way in which the law is superfluous. The real problem with Brownie was not so much the nomination but the confirmation; had the Senate been doing its job, he wouldn't have had one.

Steve and John both hit on what I've been saying for a bit: Edwards new "clean up Washington" call, where he's trying to co-opt Obama's reformer/procedural message, is weak stuff. I don't get who this appeals to. His record on these issues is at best mediocre, and he seems to be trying to cover up his overall rather light proposals with VERY LOUD rhetoric. Now he does make some concrete policy, and its, well, more symbolic than anything else. Meh. Edwards kinda dropping in my estimation some with this. It's a little insulting.

I have found press releases less than 30 days old that list Michael Duga as Max Cleland's contact, using an email address @1stcounsel.com and a cell phone number in area code 561, which is Palm Beach County, Florida.

To me, that suggests the man arrested for stealing Edwards campaign material might be the same man working for Max Cleland.

Are you certain there are two men named Michael Duga from Palm Beach County, Florida, one who works for former Sen. Cleland and one who is a potential threat to the Edwards campaign?

> Edwards Proposes "Brownie's Law" — Has Nothing
> To Do With Girl Scouts
> John Edwards announced yesterday that as
> president he would have a policy dubbed
> "Brownie's Law," named in "honor" of former FEMA
> head Michael Brown. "Edwards will enact a new
> requirement — 'Brownie's Law' — ensuring that
> senior political appointees actually are
> qualified to perform the job to which they are
> appointed," according to a campaign fact sheet.
> "Brownie's Law will require that heads of
> executive agencies and other senior officials
> have demonstrated qualifications in the field
> related to their job."

INHO that is a very dangerous road to go down: it leads to credentialism, unnecessary educational and "certification" requirements, and ultimately fossilization. Should a top-level person have _some_ demonstrated capabilities more-or-less related to the job he is proposed for? Sure. Does the Director of FEMA have to be a firefighter, ex-Red Cross disaster manager, or something similar? No, absolutely not. Any top-level person with any kind of technical operations experience and fundamental curiosity and desire to do well could have and would have reacted better to Katrina - not least by calling in domain experts and listening to them.

This plays toward one of the worst features of the liberal world: credentialism. Which actually does nothing to address W's habit of putting unsuccessful, untested political flunkies into key jobs: I see no reason that Reagent's University can't start up a "Certificate Program in Disaster Management" to help out the Giuliani Administration.

Cranky

CNN reported this morning that the thief who broke into Dodd's office had no idea Dodd was running for president. The CNN commentator who reported the story then quipped: "That's not surprising. Most Americans don't know he's running either."

AJ, the point of the proposal is that if senators pass a law constraining their discretion, they'll suddenly grow enough spine to challenge presidential nominations?

Forgive me if I'm skeptical. But in August of 2002, Michael Brown's nomination to as Deputy Director of FEMA was passed on the executive calendar, by voice vote. In other words, not a single senator bothered to raise an objection to a man who lacked a single qualification for a vitally important post. And let's think about this - why would John Edwards fail to mention that fact in his proposal?

It's worth remembering that Edwards was the junior senator from North Carolina in 2002, and so the failure is as much his as anyone's. I don't mean to single him out; the entire institutional culture of the senate's confirmation process is to blame. But it takes real chutzpah for Edwards to suggest that the problem here was the lack of a law dictating that the president find qualified nominees. He had his chance to get this right, and didn't do any better than the other 99 senators. This proposal is a gimmick, and it's unworthy of Edwards, whom I generally like. If he wants to reform the confirmation process, he should forthrightly acknowledge his own failings, and then urge his former colleagues to get this right.

...the ballot measure is on property taxes, I believe. Just FYI.

I concur with Cranky Observer's comments.

Imagine if such a rule had been in place during FDR's presidency--half of the New Deal cabinet would have been disqualified, e.g.
Harold Ickes (journalist, ward heeler)
Henry Morgenthau (farming administrator)
Harry Hopkins (director of the New York Tuberculosis Association)

Credentialism is no substitute for conscientious oversight.

Re: Larry Craig Steps Down From Romney Campaign

Craig is now saying he shouldn't have pleaded guilty.

I guess he probably pleaded guilty because he thought that if he had pleaded innocent, no one would have believed him... they would have thought he was really a homosexual.

By pleading guilty he put away those rumors....

As was documented by Daily Kos user sgary this morning, the original post here at TPM Election Central on Michael Duga read as following:

"Man Arrested For Impersonating Edwards Aide
Florida man Michael Duga, a career criminal whose record includes selling drugs and car-jacking, has been arrested for making his way into a John Edwards event by falsely telling people he was a former staffer for ex-Senator Max Cleland (D-GA) — as it turns out, Cleland did have a staffer who was also named Michael Duga."

I don't understand why you revised your report without issuing a retraction or correction. Simply revising the story looks highly unethical, which is surprising for TPM.

WHOA
I was dismayed by this for a few seconds, but look closely and you'll see that Edwards is not really proposing legislation. Perhaps there was an unfortunate turn of phrase in the reporting, or the Edwards staff may not have been clear enough in presenting what is obviously meant as a contrasting bit of positioning. Basically, this piece indicates that someone at the Edwards campaign, or the candidate himself, said the equivalent of: When I'm in office, I'll make it my policy to appoint people who are actually qualified to do what the country pays them to do. And I'll call this policy, in honor of the cautionary tale the Bush admin has become, "Brownie's Law".