Administrivia + Cronyism = Major Malfunction in Government Services

Main Entry: ad·min·is·tri·via
Pronunciation: &d-'mi-n&-s'tri-vE-&
Function: noun
(conj. ADMINIStrative TRIVIA) the often inordinate amount of detail required to administer, or manage, a network; the trivialization of routine administrative tasks to the point of uselessness

PLUS

Main Entry: cro·ny·ism
Pronunciation: -nE-"i-z&m
Function: noun
: partiality to cronies especially as evidenced in the appointment of political hangers-on to office without regard to their qualifications

EQUALS:

• Condoleezza Rice, the former national security adviser and now secretary of state, was “part of the problem”. Instead of ensuring that Mr Bush received the best possible advice, “she would side with the president to build her intimacy with the president”.

• The detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere was “a concrete example” of the decision-making problem, with the president and other top officials in effect giving the green light to soldiers to abuse detainees. “You don't have this kind of pervasive attitude out there unless you've condoned it.”

• The military, particularly the army and marine corps, is overstretched and demoralised. Officers, Mr Wilkerson claimed, “start voting with their feet, as they did in Vietnam....and all of a sudden your military begins to unravel”.

• Under Secretary of Defense Douglas Feith, whom most of you probably know Tommy Franks said was stupidest blankety blank man in the world. He was. Let me testify to that. He was. Seldom in my life have I met a dumber man. And yet after the Secretary of State agrees to a $400 billion department, rather than a $30 billion department, having control, at least in the immediate post-war period in Iraq, this man is put in charge. Not only is he put in charge, he is given carte blanche to tell the State Department to go screw themselves in a closet somewhere.