bremer.jpgPer the WaPo's Glenn Kessler by way of GSD, we find that the Bushies still put dumb-ass ideological cronyism above all else when it comes to staffing jobs that require a delicate and knowledgeable touch:

Ryan C. Crocker, the new U.S. ambassador to Iraq, bluntly told Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in a cable dated May 31 that the embassy in Baghdad -- the largest and most expensive U.S. embassy -- lacks enough well-qualified staff members and that its security rules are too restrictive for Foreign Service officers to do their jobs.

"Simply put, we cannot do the nation's most important work if we do not have the Department's best people," Crocker said in the memo.

[...]

"He's panicking," said one government official who recently returned from Baghdad, adding that Crocker is carrying a heavy workload as the United States presses the Iraqi government to meet political benchmarks.

"You could use a well-managed political section of 50 people" who know what they are doing, the official said, but Crocker does not have it because many staffers assigned to the embassy are "too young for the job," or are not qualified and are "trying to save their careers" by taking an urgent assignment in Iraq.

"They need a cohesive, coherent effort on all fronts," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "It's just overwhelming."

Now, where have we heard this song before?

I'm not talking about Michaels Brown and Chertoff and their destruction of FEMA, or the ridiculous sight of wet-behind-the-ears fourth-tier Religio-Racist Right law school grads putting highly regarded two-time US Attorney Tom Heffelfinger on a purge list for allegedly being unqualified for his own job.

I'm simply talking about the people Bush and his buddies have picked to be our important public faces over the years to the Iraqis.

Ah, yes -- the Coalition Provisional Authority. How could I forget? The people for whom giving cushy jobs to the offspring of conservative media pundits, or promoting Republican ideology opposing abortion, was more important than, say, a knowledge of Arabic or diplomacy or experience in how to put together critical infrastructure.

Arrrrrrgh.

These people lack the basic metacompetence to know just how incompetent they are, and they also lack the basic metaethical foundation that would enable them to give a ripshit. They probably sleep soundly, very soundly, in their beds at night, untroubled by the chaos they have caused. Hey, they got their payoffs, Jack. Keep your hands offa their stack.