White House paying $100,000 salary to "Director of Lessons Learned"

[Up2Late]

I don't know if this breaks any rules of Blogging, but I just found this over at AMERICAblog .com, and since he is quoting a public figure (Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL)), I figure it's O.K. to repost "John in DC's" post here, as long as I linked back to it.

If anyone know how to find quotes in the Congressional record and can find this, I'd love to see his full remarks. There is also a link below to a post at ThinkProgress, which has the list of "The Four Most Overpaid White House Staffers."

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

White House paying $100,000 salary to "Director of Lessons Learned"

by John in DC - 7/12/2006 11:25:00 AM at AMERICAblog .com

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) offers a few more lessons learned:

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the President said we continue to be wise about how we spend the people's money.

"Then why are we paying over $100,000 for a 'White House Director of Lessons Learned'?

"Maybe I can save the taxpayers $100,000 by running through a few of the lessons this White House should have learned by now.

"Lesson 1: When the Army Chief of Staff and the Secretary of State say you are going to war without enough troops, you're going to war without enough troops.

"Lesson 2: When 8.8 billion dollars of reconstruction funding disappears from Iraq, and 2 billion dollars disappears from Katrina relief, it's time to demand a little accountability.

"Lesson 3: When you've 'turned the corner' in Iraq more times than Danica Patrick at the Indy 500, it means you are going in circles.

"Lesson 4: When the national weather service tells you a category 5 hurricane is heading for New Orleans, a category 5 hurricane is heading to New Orleans.

"I would also ask the President why we're paying for two 'Ethics Advisors' and a 'Director of Fact Checking.'

"They must be the only people in Washington who get more vacation time than the President.

"Maybe the White House could consolidate these positions into a Director of Irony."

<http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/white-house-paying-100000-salary-to.html>

The Four Most Overpaid White House Staffers <http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/11/four-most-overpaid-wh-staffers/>

[justgamma]

1. That is priceless! Thank you. n/t

[AtomicKitten]

2. the key phrase is

should have learned. But I have no doubt this fictitious person will be receiving a fictitious medal any day now.

[Up2Late]

4. "fictitious person...?" What, you don't think the Andy Card or whatever...

...the new guy's name is, you don't think they wouldn't actually hire somebody for this "important" task?

You think this is just someone stuffing their pocket with some extra cash?

National Journal publish a full list of White House staff at this link: <http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0711nj1.htm?alpha#list>

[AtomicKitten]

5. I was being facetious.

Obviously no lessons have been learned nor do I expect they will be.
Not so obvious was my sarcasm. :)

[JohnnyLib2]

3. My new hero

is Rep. Emanuel. Checking on him right now. THANKS!

[ashling]

6. wait wait, Don't Tell Me

Heard abou this today onthat NPR show. Poundstone got laughs ofo of it througout the show.

[TreasonousBastard]

7. Heard the same show-- you hadda know...

poundstone was gonna milk that one all day.

[Up2Late]

8. That's where I heard it too, so I had to look it up...

You know what the amazing part about this is, this is so like what you think of when you think of the Old Stereotypes of the European Royalty.

Or at least like the Royalty of British Comedy, where the King or the Stupid Prince doesn't actually learn from his mistakes, he pays someone to learn his mistakes for him!

So basically, he's either to stupid to learn from his mistakes, or he is so arrogant and self-righteous, that he refuses to admit any wrong or that it is possible that he even made any mistakes.

I don't know which it is, but any of those are a serious flaw of a true leader and a major waste of money on top of that.

I'm going to go through that list of White House staff and pick out a few more that I doubt any other past President had.

[Up2Late]

9. kick n/t

:kick:

[Up2Late]

10. kick n/t

:kick: