Bill Berkowitz
November 9, 2005

Bush cronies continue to hurt country

Will the public's health and pocketbooks be "Brownied" by Stewart Simonson and Donald Powell?

If you thought the Bush Administration, deservedly chastised for choosing the untested, inexperienced and, judging from recently released emails, the easily distracted Michael Brown to run the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), would have more qualified people running other critical programs, think again. Even as ongoing hearings reveal Brown's incompetence, cronyism reigns supreme. One recent appointment may compromise the public's health, and another may preside over the further picking of taxpayers' pockets.

Naming close friends, family members, political contributors, defeated comrades, or a college roommate of a pal to administration posts was not an unusual practice for White House occupants who preceded Bush. Usually, however, these appointees were assigned ambassadorships to faraway places, or given other positions where they wouldn't endanger the country. In addition to mastering hubris, venality, secrecy, and media manipulation, the Bush Administration has succeeded in becoming masters of political patronage.

In a story titled "Welcome to the Hackocracy," The New Republic looks at 15 of the Bush administration's "biggest ... hacks," those with "waifish resumés padded like the Michelin man, whose political connections have won them important national responsibilities." The magazine maintains that:

"The Bush era has taken government out of the hands of the hyper-qualified and given it back to the common man. This new breed may not have what the credentialists sneeringly call "relevant experience." Their alma maters may not always be 'accredited.' But they have something the intellectual snobs of yore never had: loyalty. If not loyalty to country, then at least loyalty to party and to the guy who got them the job. And their loyalty has been rewarded: Even if they fail, they know they can move up the chain until they find a job they can succeed in or until a major American city is destroyed, whichever comes first."

Indeed, the magazine postulates, President Bush's experience of being bailed out at every turn by friends and family "may be why ... no administration has etched the principles of hackocracy into its governing philosophy as deeply as this one."

'Avian Bird Flu'

Recently, surrounded by a number of cabinet officials, including Secretary of State Condi Rice, and the Secretaries of Homeland Security, Agriculture, Health & Human Services, Transportation and Veteran Affairs, President Bush warned, in a high-profile speech at the National Institutes of Health, that H5N1 (commonly known as "Avian Bird Flu") could, in time, reach our shores. "A pandemic is a lot like a fire -- a forest fire," Bush said "If caught early, it might be extinguished with limited damage. If allowed to smolder undetected, it can grow to an inferno that spreads quickly beyond our ability to control it."

He asked Congress for $7.1 billion to prepare for a flu epidemic "that health experts believe," San Francisco Chronicle columnist David Lazarus noted, "would likely kill millions."

You might believe the President and the many public health officials when they warn of the danger of Avian Bird Flu landing on our shores. Off the bat, you might instinctively think that the President's comments sounded like another anthrax-like scare aimed at taking the public's attention away from the many failures bedeviling his administration. Some may argue that whether the threat is real or not, it will surely be a boon for the already profit-stuffed pharmaceutical industry (for more on this see "Bird Flu: A Corporate Bonanza for the Biotech Industry").

Whatever your take, a pandemic of the kind currently discussed by public health officials could undoubtedly overwhelm an unprepared health care system, cost billions of dollars and cause an untold number of deaths.

Having performed incompetently during Hurricane Katrina, one might expect the Bush Administration to seek out someone fully versed in public health matters to head up the team charged with responding to this potential public health catastrophe. Just who is in charge of handling this and other significant health care threats?

Stewart Simonson, who, as Assistant Secretary for Public Health and Emergency Preparedness, Department of Health and Human Services turns up as number seven on The New Republic's list of 15 Bush Administration hacks. According to the magazine, Simonson's official biography notes that he is "the Health and Human Services Department's point man 'on matters related to bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.'"

Before coming to HHS in 2001, TNR pointed out that Simonson was "a top official at the delay-plagued, money-hemorrhaging passenger rail company Amtrak." (Simonson also turned up on Rep. Henry Waxman's Fact Sheet titled "Cronyism in the Bush Administration," that the Democrat from California issued in late September.)

Prior to his service at Amtrak, Simonson "was an adviser to Wisconsin Governor Tommy Thompson, specializing in crime and prison policy." In 2001, when Thompson became Bush's first HHS secretary, "he hired Simonson as a legal adviser and promoted him to his current post shortly before leaving the Department last year." Simonson replaced Jerome Hauer, whose resume -- provided by Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, for whom he serves as a member of its Board of Directors -- states that he "is recognized as one of the nation's leading experts on bioterrorism and emergency preparedness."

Simonson's biography boasts that he "'supervised policy development for Project BioShield,' a program designed to speed the manufacture of crucial vaccines and antidotes." According to a recent report in the Washington Post, the program "has by most accounts bogged down and shown few results."

In early October, the New York Times reported that "A plan developed by the Bush administration to deal with any possible outbreak of pandemic flu shows that the United States is woefully unprepared for what could become the worst disaster in the nation's history."

Is the man that Beth Quinn, a columnist with the Middletown, NY-based Times Herald-Record, recently dubbed "the Michael Brown of the killer flu," the right person to guide the country through a massive health crisis?

SourceWatch, a project of the Center for Media & Democracy noted that in April 2004, HHS Director Tommy Thompson said that Simonson "has focused on public health preparedness issues and been a key member of the HHS team since before the September 11, 2001 attacks and the anthrax attacks a month later. His understanding of the HHS role in homeland security and familiarity with the challenges we face make him an ideal choice to lead our Public Health Emergency Preparedness Office at this important time."

The Washington Drug Letter published an article in its December 2004 issue in which Hauer was harshly critical of Simonson:

Speaking as part of a biodefense panel in Washington, D.C. Dec. 15, Jerome Hauer ... said the $877 million contract awarded to VaxGen to produce a new anthrax vaccine was insufficient. He also insinuated poor policymaking has left the country vulnerable to terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction.

Hauer faulted the current management at the ASPHEP Office, including acting secretary Stewart Simonson, for not being better prepared to handle its duties. He called for the creation of a new federal office to coordinate U.S. biodefense activities...

"The decisions being made do not appear to have a sound basis," said Hauer.

In an April 28, 2005 article, Fresia Rodriguez Cadavid of the National Journal pointed out that at a Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing "Senate Republicans expressed concern ... that despite the government's ongoing efforts, the nation remains susceptible to a bioterrorist threat":

Noting that the flu can be lethal to some populations such as the elderly, Sen. Larry Craig, R-Idaho, said the country was unprepared to deal with a possible flu pandemic.

Simonson...stopped short of agreeing with Craig's assessment, but said "it would pose an enormous challenge."

Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, and [Chairman Sen. Judd] Gregg [R-N.J.] also questioned if the process used by Simonson's office to award vaccine development contracts ensured open competition and delivery to prevent a vaccine shortfall.

"Are we creating the same situation with anthrax?" Gregg asked, referring to the flu vaccine shortfall last winter.

Simonson responded that the agency has negotiated a contract with California's VaxGen for 75 million doses of an anthrax vaccine and also has ordered 5 million additional doses from other suppliers to satisfy immediate needs.

Although Simonson said the different agreements show that they are "seeking not to put all our eggs in one basket," he added that he remains unsure if the contract award process is being done right.

"We're learning as we go," he said.

(For more on the VaxGen deal see here at Transparent Grid.)

After reading through Simonson's bio, the author of The Lonewacko blog acerbically pointed out that Simonson is "obviously qualified if we have an outbreak of litigation."

Douglas Drenkow, a researcher, writer, and political commentator, summed it up in a recent column posted at OpEdNews.com: "The person in charge of our country's public health ... in the event of any sort of bio-emergency is a lawyer, not a doctor or anyone else with an iota of formal training in the field."

'Katrina Czar'

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, news reports had Karl Rove, the President's closest political advisor, heading-up the team working on issues related to the recovery of the Gulf Coast and New Orleans. Now, however, Rove is in legal limbo, as he is still under investigation by Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald. According to senior Republican officials cited by the Washington Post, Rove is pondering whether he should issue an apology for "misleading colleagues and the public about his role in conversations that led to the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Wilson."At the same time, he is likely devising a strategy to rescue a flagging Bush presidency.

Given those weighty tasks, President Bush has turned to someone else to run the Gulf Coast reconstruction project. Straight from the well-appointed offices of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. (FDIC) comes its Chairman, Donald Powell, who will assume the position of "Katrina Czar" when U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen steps down at the end of the year. Reuters reported that Powell "will coordinate with Congress, state and local governments, and private-sector efforts to get the region back on its feet, the Homeland Security Department said."

A lifelong -- and extremely wealthy -- Texan, Powell was one of the "Pioneers" who raised at least $100,000 for Bush's 2000 presidential campaign. The watchdog group, Texans for Public Justice, pointed out that Powell was appointed head of the Board of Regents at Texas A&M University by then Governor Bush in the mid-nineties.

According to his bio posted at the FDIC website, Powell, sworn in as the 18th Chairman of the FDIC in August 2001, was President and CEO of The First National Bank of Amarillo. With over "thirty years of experience in the financial services industry" Powell may recognize a financial fraud or hustle, but how is he on crisis management questions? According to some administration officials, Powell comes to the task with no previous experience in disaster or crisis management.

Thus far, more than $60 billion has been set aside for Katrina relief and more is expected. Making sure the money is used on behalf of the victims and ensuring that bloated contracts with huge corporations do not absorb the lion's share of the funds is a monumental task for watchdog groups and congressional committees. "Officials responsible for doling out billions in relief contracts" told a House committee investigating the government's response to Hurricane Katrina that they did not "have answers to ... questions about why certain recovery efforts have stalled, whether money is being wasted and what's keeping Gulf Coast firms from getting a bigger share of the work."

"Obligations are being made at a rate of $275 million a day, in an unstable environment and in an expedited manner," said Richard L. Skinner, the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. "When you mix it all together, it is a potentially perfect recipe for fraud, waste and abuse."

According to the Washington Post, "the Government Accountability Office is also monitoring reconstruction spending" and it found that "a $39 million sole-source deal the Corps signed for portable classrooms in Mississippi ... went to an Alaskan Native corporation headquartered in North Carolina, though a Mississippi firm claims it could have done the work for about half of what the government paid."

At the conclusion of the New Republic's crony list (Harriet Miers was #1), the magazine notes: "In Federalist No. 76, Alexander Hamilton warned that, in presenting nominations to the Senate, a president 'would be both ashamed and afraid' to nominate cronies -- or, as Hamilton called them, 'obsequious instruments of his pleasure.' Maybe politics was different back in the 1780s, but we have watched Bush appoint many obsequious instruments of his pleasure. It may be his legacy: George W. Bush -- he took the shame and fear out of cronyism."

Reader Comments

Just when you thought this country could not possible go any further into trouble under Bush, here we go again. This mockery of a President reminds me of a former district manager I had with a retail store. When she made the move from one company to the next she was fulfilling old promises she owed people regardless of their qualification for the positions. She basically pushed any qualified person currently working with the company to the side to make room for old "friends" for lack of a better word. That is essentially what our current President is doing. The people who voted this cow-poke in should be slapped and have their right to vote stripped away. How no one is mentioning the word "impeachment" at this point I don't know. I'd rather have someone who cheats on their wife and runs the country right then someone who speaks about as well as an mentally challenged 2nd grader and will get us all nuked in his Holy Crusade to spread democracy.

--- Jason | 11-14-2005 | 7:04 am