Myers, You're Doing A Heck Of A Job

[HeightsGuy]

Julie Meyers, recently turned 36, lawyer, neice of General Richard Meyers, wife of John Wood (Michael Chertoff's Chief of Staff), former associate council to Kenneth Starr, and former special assitant to Bush for personnel issues, has been given a recess appointment by Bush to head the 20,000 person U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (the old INS). In her most previous job she supervised 170 employees at the Commerce Department. Her nomination to the post was stalled in Congress because they didn't believe she had the qualifications to lead the department that keeps our nation's borders secure, and didn't want to see the same thing happen to the department as what happened to FEMA following Katrina.

Am I out of line thinking it's a critical mistake to put nation's border security in the hands of a 36 year old with extremely limited management experience and no experience in law enforcement?

[MidtownCoog]

Cronyism is not good.

You KNOW there are better candidates out there.

[RedScare]

There are not a lot of 36 year olds with enough experience to run a department like that, although I know plenty of 36 year olds who THINK they can. There are also big turf battles going on at ICE and Homeland Security. After the FEMA debacle, followed by the Harriet Myers debacle, you'd think more thought would be put into the head of ICE, which is VERY much in the news, with passions high on all sides, needing a very competent and knowledgable leader.

You'd think wrong.

[TJones]

I have to agree, lots of better qualified people out there. I think it might be a matter of who actually WANTS that job. It is one helluva responsibility to carry.