While campaigning for office, President Obama indicated that he was going to have a Performance Improvement team that he called “a SWAT team” that will be responsible for working with Federal agencies to set tough performance targets and hold managers accountability. He will fire managers who are not getting the job done. Too bad the public could not do this with members of Congress rather than have to wait 2 years. Making mangers accountability is a great idea and what would the housing crisis be like if we had that for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. However, will firing mangers open the way for featherbedding? What kind of performance can one expect from political cronies? Let’s hope qualified appointments are made if replacement becomes necessary rather then just satisfying political interest. Of course this will require a balancing act between what type of individuals are in the SWAT team and how mangers respond to their inquiries. A tough team will result in uncooperative management and a soft approach may allow for management manipulation. But we must remember it is not just management of an agency but also the qualifications of the line management that is assigned a particular task. You can have the best manager in the world, but if those under him/her are incompetent the agency will not function as required. Sometimes, political appointments can be the main problem in organizations not living up to expectations. Competent personnel top to bottom and the tools to do the job is what is needed. Politics should not get involved or else we will have a screwed up agency.

Government agencies should be held accountable and if they fail, then new qualified leadership should be appointed. The time for fancy rhetoric and deception must end. This also applies to members of the House and Senate. They should be addressing the problems of the country and not trying to get a political advantage on investigations that they know will really go anywhere but make good headlines in the news media.

We are hearing that some leaders of committees as well as Congresswomen Nancy Pelosi are thinking about Congressional investigation into the Bush administration. Now we also know that 99% of the policies that the Bush administration performed had Congressional approval. So if Congress wants to investigate the Bush administration, they should begin with themselves.

Furthermore, if that is the direction that the Democratic controlled Congress wants to take, then I suggest they also look into the incompetency of Congressmen Barney Frank whose finance committee was suppose to oversee Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the nice, sweet mortgage deal the Senator Dodd got from Fannie Mae a big campaign contributor. Then while at it, they should also look into the then Vice-President Al Gore’s trip to California in the ‘90’s to collect $500,000 from a group of monks as a campaign contribution. Also, lets look into the pardoning of Mark Rich by the Clinton Administration. Since Mr. Rich lived up to his name by making big contributions to both Bill and Hilary. Gee, so much to investigate and yet, the public wants the economic situation addressed first and foremost, but Congress wants political headlines over action. The public better be prepared for another do nothing Congress. All talk, no action unless there is political gain.

In the future to prevent anymore Gitmo’s, we should tell our troops not to take any prisoners. Case solved. The ACLU will not be happen, but who really cares.