'Anything Goes' Administration

[RedEarth]

THE INTERIOR Department's inspector general says the department suffers from an "anything goes" ethical culture. "Simply stated, short of a crime, anything goes at the highest levels of the Department of the Interior," Inspector General Earl E. Devaney told a House Government Reform subcommittee last month. "Ethics failures on the part of senior department officials -- taking the form of appearances of impropriety, favoritism and bias -- have been routinely dismissed with a promise 'not to do it again.' "

At the Education Department, its inspector general found, officials violated conflict-of-interest rules and steered contracts for its $4.8 billion Reading First program to favored textbook publishers.

"They are trying to crash our party and we need to beat the out of them in front of all the other would-be party crashers who are standing on the front lawn waiting to see how we welcome these dirtbags," the Reading First program director, Chris Doherty, wrote about one company in an e-mail to staff members.

.....

And then there was the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, which sent -- in the account of The Post's Rajiv Chandrasekaran, "the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest" to help rebuild Iraq -- with a screening process that featured questions on whether applicants voted for George W. Bush or even what they thought about Roe v. Wade .

A 24-year-old who lacked a background in finance -- but who had applied for a White House job -- was detailed to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The head of a faith-based relief organization that provided health care while promoting Christianity in developing countries was sent to replace a physician with extensive experience in postwar health administration because, the physician was told, the White House wanted a "loyalist" in the job.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/10/01/AR2006100100810_pf.html