The Washington Post has an article about the awful job market Bush appointees will face now that they’re out of work. Some observers suggest that having been a loyal Bushie will be a blackmark on their resume. Others dissent:
“I think the reports of their unmarketability are exaggerated,” Podesta said. “If you’re an economist at Treasury and you’re smart and skillful, I don’t think the fact that Bush was president and Democrats found him to be unpopular will kill anyone’s chances of finding a good job.”
“The cream always rises to the top,” added Nels Olson, of the executive recruiting firm Korn/Ferry International. “Those that are the first-rate individuals out of the administration and who have developed good bipartisan relationships and have solid policy experience will be able to make the transition.”
But it seems to me there isn’t so much “cream” among Bush appointees. Indeed, some might argue that the Bush administration’s failures were in no small measure brought about by the incompetence of Bush appointees. And that tiny fraction who were competent have likely been asked to stay on with Obama.
Of course, the article doesn’t make the obvious point, which is that the reason being a Bush appointee looks bad on a resume is not because people hate George W. Bush (though they do), it’s because they assume (correctly) that nearly everyone he hired was a hack.
Reverend Dennis
Yeah, Bushies, just wave that Regent University diploma at them and you’ll be in solid. Look how well Alberto Gonzales is doing and take heart.
Zifnab
There is a market for hacks. Expect a swelling in the wingnut news punditry and snake-oil salesmanship markets over the next eight years. Hacks with political connections and sufficiently high soap boxes can always find work with the right people. Hell, Oliver North gets enough air time on FOX, you’d think he breathes it to survive.
Tom65
I guess the WaPo has filled its hiring quota for Bush hacks, as Michael Gerson is already on the payroll.
wilfred
Bush, he’s already missed:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7821449.stm
Scroll down a bit – any work for those guys in Dallas?
HL Guy
Let’s not forget that in addition to the right-wing noise machine there is also a right-wing wealth redistribution service. This is only tangentially connected to the government: winger think tanks, "oil services corporations" and the like will be there to pick up the slack, until they’re back at the levers of power. Loyal Bushies have little to worry about.
TheFountainHead
They can have my job….
paragonpark
The people leaving the administration will, as always, have a much easier time than people needing work who are not connected. Democrat, Republican, popular boss, unpopular boss, etc. really don’t matter.
They may have to settle for high-paying lobbying or consulting jobs rather than positions on Ivy League faculties but finding work won’t be a problem.
PeakVT
The pay might be less because the Bushies won’t bring much in the way of access, but nonetheless the "revolving door" will continue to revolve.
TCG
I’d treat it as a black mark on any resume that I read.
The next thing we know, wingnuts may start calling for the expansion of civil rights laws to include Bush Administration hacks and other assorted wingnuts as a protected classification against discrimination in hiring practices.
They may even call for employers to take affirmative action in employment decisions and establish quotas for Wingnuts who worked in the Whitehouse or on Capital Hill.
Notorious P.A.T.
I thought this belief died on January 20, 2001.
Zifnab25
That was proof of the old saying, "Crap floats"
Person of Choler
Just when I think your BDS might be in remission, you start with this again.
MattF
Cream rises to the top, but so does shit.
AkaDad
Knowing the crowd that surrounds Bush, I have no doubt they will refrain from pursuing the big bucks and dedicate their lives to humanitarian and philanthropic endeavors.
Notorious P.A.T.
I would respond, but I have to go write a long, rambling screed about how Barack Obama was not born in America, but Canada, and his real father is Malcolm X.
Jen R
[Jamie Hyneman]Well, there’s your problem![/Jamie Hyneman]
So 73% of Americans are Democrats now?
Bob In Pacifica
A lot of them will find work. People who spent eight years letting corporations loot the treasury usually get something in return. In any case, I’ll worry about them after my friends get their economic problems straightened out.
Josh Hueco
I’d love to work for a firm named "Corn Fairy International."
r€nato
I’ve been reading Fiasco, Thomas Ricks’ devastating account of exactly how FUBAR the Iraq war was from conception to today.
The amount of incompetence, arrogance and just plain fucking everything up is staggering. I mean, we DFH’s all know about it in general, but to actually read about it in specifics is certainly enough to make one’s blood boil.
One episode: how Rumsfeld and Doug Feith pressured Jay Garner to fire from his post-war Iraq planning group, about the only two people in the government who actually knew a lot about Iraq’s infrastructure and society.
We literally had no plan for the aftermath; it was literally a real-life "Underwear Pants Gnomes" approach:
1) Invade Iraq and topple Saddam
2) ???
3)
Profit!Democracy spreads throughout the Middle East!Thousands of coalition troops and tens or hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead – as well as hundreds of billions of dollars pissed away – all because of these neocon douchebags who sincerely believed Iraq would spontaneously form a new government after decades of life under a harsh dictator who repressed ethnic tensions.
I’m sure that somewhere in the Bush Administration there are folks who are competent at what they do; however I think they have hidden them from view pretty well.
DougJ
It would be hard not to. Not because of what it means about political affiliation, but because…well, it’s kind of the employment equivalent of having gotten a loan from the Money Store.
The Other Steve
I’m sure that those who do not have a law degree from Liberty University will be able to find good work.
thomas
rebublican governance = the new nihilism. Why wouldn’t major corporate citizens want to have the leaders of such a success as part of their package. WTF, how could it become any more screwed-up than it already is?
However, we should remember that there’s a shitload of corporate governance = the other new nihilism f’heads now out of jobs too.
Kind’a brings a tear to my eye, especially when I think or how their incompetence has soon-to-be nearly 10% of the country un, or under employed.
These turds need to go to jail.
thanks for the opportunity to rant.
jenniebee
No, that’s just another acknowledgment of reality’s known liberal bias. Bush was unpopular and Democrats found him to be so; a loyal patriotic red stater would have politely looked the other way (and the really patriotic ones jump up and down and shout "Wolverines!" to draw attention away from the unpleasantness at 1600 PA Ave.)
Notorious P.A.T.
Here’s my advice to former Bush appointees looking for work: go to William Ford, owner of the Detroit Lions and the Ford Motor Company. Kiss his ass. He will give you a job and you will then basically have to remove and sell his kidney to get fired.
Tsulagi
Of course you had to lob that easy softball in your post. I’m going to take the high road. No Bush snowball brigades or anything like that in my comment.
I’ll just take this opportunity to wish them all happy job hunting in this robust economy marking the Decider’s departure. Shouldn’t take even six weeks as no doubt they’ll be greeted with candies and flowers.
jake 4 that 1
To quote Harvey Danger, cream and bastards rise.
Karen S.
I just don’t care if they have trouble finding jobs or not. They should have trouble just because they were such Bush loyalists, but, in some circles, that isn’t a liability, sadly. Some posters have already mentioned the right wing punditry industry and the wingnut "think" tanks as places that would be glad to hire the flotsam and jetsam of BushCo. I’m more worried about my friends who work for community newspapers owned by the financially troubled Sun-Times Media Group. The papers they work for were eliminated last week and layoffs are looming. So my emotional and mental energy is going to them and not some BushCo loyalist hacks.
Josh Hueco
It’s more like C.R.E.A.M.
Mike in NC
It was all a very simple conceit, really:
(1) Invade Iraq and be welcomed as liberators.
(2) Install Chalabi as puppet-for-life to handle the aftermath.
(3) Turn on the oil spigots and enjoy!
Funny how well that all worked out.
J Royce
I don’t think the fact that Bush was president and Democrats found him to be unpopular…
This is very telling. Supposedly Podesta IS a Democrat. Apparently the Dems at the top do not consider themselves related to those at the bottom.
Thank you Ralph Nader, you are an American patriot of the People. The People were just … busy at the time.
TenguPhule
My heart weeps for them.
If they can’t find work, let them be imprisoned as debtors and sold into servitude licking boots.
El Cid
What did Brownie do after FEMA and Katrina?`
Zuzu's Petals
@r€nato:
Excerpt from VF piece linked earlier:
Warning, by the end of the article you may want to scream aloud.
jake 4 that 1
I’m not sure some of those freaks and freakettes would see that as a punishment. Especially if cowboy boots are involved.
wmd
The scum also rises.
Mary
After 8 years of something very non-creamy rising to the top, where does anyone get by with saying, "The cream always rises to the top"
I guess always is multi-definitional in a parallel universe kinda way.
Mary
And btw:
" the awful job market Bush appointees will face"
The military is hiring.
Blue Raven
@TenguPhule:
I could use a couple to work for slave wages under the table to clean my apartment.
jeff
If there was any cream in the Bush administration it curdled a long time ago.
Mike in NC
That and take a long hot shower to wash off the scum. Our long national nightmare is almost over…
AnneLaurie
From my perspective as a peon in the HugeMultiCorp ranks, Korn/Ferry International’s big-dollar business model has always been to assure the Big Swinging Empty Suits that their prospective new hire might be a moral imbecile with a room-temperature IQ, but he (preferrably) would look good in a suit, know all the latest Friedman catch-phrases, and not have any bad habits liable to embarrass Teh Company in public (alcoholism, okay; collage marijuana use, no way). And they used a lot of NSA retirees to ensure that compliance to the corporate norms would be assured, if only because any candidates with a complaint didn’t want their little dinner-party-in-Georgetown-unworthy peccadillos to be broadcast any further. So, this article is the Media Village Idiots’ attempt to reassure their Global-Village-Idiot Masters that, despite their sweaty night terrors, nothing has changed and nothing will change for ‘the right people’ in this best of all possible worlds. Of course it’s all bullshit and inaccuracy, but in their rarified world, perception is FAR more important than reality and its left-wing biases!
BombIranForChrist
Is there anyone who passes this test?
"and who have developed good bipartisan relationships"
Isn’t this pretty much antagonistic to the whole idea of working for Bush?
TenguPhule
Introduce some edged weapons and catch it on Camera.
"Deathmatch: GOP Jobmarket!"
Mnemosyne
Apparently Treasury employees are already getting hired as store managers for Abercrombie & Fitch.
Couldn’t happen to a nicer group of guys.