FOSs and FOBs
By Mike DeVine, Legal Editor
Today, in this country’s supposed “newspaper of record”, and in the premium above the fold, upper left-hand corner, spot, no less, The New York Times saw fit to print the “news” that Alaska’s Governor has hired people she has known and trusted for many years to fill jobs in state government.
Shocking isn’t it?
There is more: Some of these friends of Sarah (F.O.S.) made less money in the private sector than in their new government jobs!
Unbelievable!
Read further if you are of a strong constitution and own a good supply of Mylanta:
WASILLA, Alaska — Gov. Sarah Palin lives by the maxim that all politics is local, not to mention personal.
So when there was a vacancy at the top of the State Division of Agriculture, she appointed a high school classmate, Franci Havemeister, to the $95,000-a-year directorship. A former real estate agent, Ms. Havemeister cited her childhood love of cows as a qualification for running the roughly $2 million agency.
Ms. Havemeister was one of at least five schoolmates Ms. Palin hired, often at salaries far exceeding their private sector wages.
When Ms. Palin had to cut her first state budget, she avoided the legion of frustrated legislators and mayors. Instead, she huddled with her budget director and her husband, Todd, an oil field worker who is not a state employee, and vetoed millions of dollars of legislative projects.
Where to begin with this latest: pedestrian, cliché-filled mainstream media example of “Casablanca” (Shocked at gambling in the casino) style, feigned outrage at the ordinary, (what passes for) journalism.
Let’s start, Mssrs. Becker, Goodman and Powell of the exponentially decreasing in circulation daily, with whether you ever heard of an F.O.B.?
That was and is the acronym ascribed to close friends of former president Bill Clinton.
You know, the guy you had a love affair with before The One appeared. These FOBs were hired by and consulted with Bill Clinton from Day One of his first term as Governor of the small State of Arkansas through the completion of his second term as POTUS.
Yes, Webb Hubble and others plead guilty for crimes concerning Whitewater and the B. object of the preposition F.O. was impeached, but he left office with a 60+% approval rating and most agree his successes and failures were due to the man he looked at in the mirror each day, and not his choice of employees.
The main stream media and their liberal allies in the Democrat Party cared not a whit what crooks Bill Clinton hired (or pardoned, just as they care not a whit that Obama’s butt was parked in a Hate Whitey America Church for twenty years while he cavorted with at least one unrepentant terrorist while a felon got him a mansion via the aide of a F.O.H. (Friend of Saddam Hussein).
[I would analogize Palin’s hires with Obama’s, but he never hired anyone, at least no one they are willing to be seen outside church basements. Nor can we meet any of his legal clients or members of organized communities.]
You state a maxim you suppose Palin lives by of the Tip O’Neil variety (without attribution I might add), but leave out other more instructive maxims she lives by, like her Christian faith and her record of rooting out corruption.
The shocking story of high school alumni in Wasilla continues:
Ms. Palin walks the national stage as a small-town foe of “good old boy” politics and a champion of ethics reform. The charismatic 44-year-old governor draws enthusiastic audiences and high approval ratings. And as the Republican vice-presidential nominee, she points to her management experience while deriding her Democratic rivals, Senators Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., as speechmakers who never have run anything.
But an examination of her swift rise and record as mayor of Wasilla and then governor finds that her visceral style and penchant for attacking critics — she sometimes calls local opponents “haters” — contrasts with her carefully crafted public image.
An examination of record shows the Alaskan tundra littered with the remains of moose and corrupt good ole boy systems of democrats and republicans, all blown asunder by our 21st Century Annie Oakley. (I suspect the Moose was not torn asunder given her accuracy with firearms and the more sympathetic a victim is Bullwinkle than Boris Badenovs.]
Liberals in the media and the Democratic Party always get it wrong with its “carefully crafted image” projections. It wasn’t just about sex, and words and experience matters. It’s about character, and the KIND of friends certain characters pick.
Palin’s approval rating is 80% with ZERO F.O.S. indictments.
And yes, she attacks critics and will continue to do so, just like the New York Times.
Mike DeVine’s Charlotte Observer columns
Legal Editor for The Minority and HinzSight Reports
"The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race." - The Chief Justice
"One man with courage makes a majority." - Andrew Jackson
...contrast is the employment histories of their spouses.
Todd Palin quit his 17 year oil field job on the North Slope when it became obvious that there was a potential conflict (not that he was even in a policy-setting position, and was a union man to boot, IIRC.)
Michelle Obama's career (and salary) took off like a rocket upon Barack's election. Quite a bit of dough was steered the hospital's way. Pure coincidence, I'm sure.
I'll leave it to somebody smarter than me to assemble the facts, but it's pretty clear the Obamas know how to milk the system, while the Palins went out of their way to avoid the appearance of impropriety.