Inexperienced 28-Year-Old Bush Staffer Appointed to Critical Homeland Secu

[kpete]

Inexperienced 28-Year-Old Bush Staffer Appointed to Critical Homeland Security Post

The Bush administration has appointed 28-year-old former White House staffer Doug Hoelscher as the executive director of the Homeland Security Advisory Committees.

In his new position, Hoelscher will gather expert advice “on behalf of the president and the Homeland Security secretary” from 20 other advisory boards covering “key areas of homeland security, including threats to infrastructure and preventing terrorist attacks that use weapons of mass destruction.”

His experience?

Hoelscher has no management experience, a review of his professional credentials shows. He came to government in 2001 as a low-level White House staffer, arranging presidential travel, according to news reports. He earned $30,000 a year, salary documents show.

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/09/homeland-security-appointment/
http://www.govexec.com/story_page.cfm?articleid=33557&dcn=e_hsw

[berni_mccoy]

1. Quite a jump for a staffer, he must know something...

that Bush wants kept quiet.

[Sanity Claws]

3. I think it shows that qualified people don't want to work for *

I think the * admin probably has to scrape the bottom of the barrel to get anyone to come on board now, particularly in the areas of Homeland Security or FEMA.

[Canuckistanian]

2. Don't tell me -he has a website

He's called "Stone" and likes to be submissive. Click here for details! You won't be disappointed!

[tularetom]

4. Did his daddy make a big contribution to the * campaign?

Bet he was a member of the young college republicans. Why ain't his ass in Iraq?

[librechik]

10. that was my question! "Who's his Daddy?"

[mdmc]

5. wonder if thewent to college

I mean graduated from college.

[patrice]

6. Isn't this country's bureaucratic machinery run by 30+ or - somethings?

[sakabatou]

7. D'oh!

[rocktivity]

8. I thought the GOP was AGAINST affirmative action

:headbang:
rocknation

[Synnical]

9. Not another one!

When will the Administration learn? Stupid question, nevermind.

[mzteris]

11. ah - he was with the RNC

"On Saturday May 8, Republican National Convention delegation affairs chair Doug Hoelscher addressed approximately 350 of California’s delegates to the 2004 Republican National Convention. "

http://www.c-spanstore.org/shop/index.php?main_page=product_video_info&cPath=18_28&products_id=181845-1

[fed-up]

12. Must be one of the twin's boyfriends.....lol n/t

[Coastie for Truth]

13. When I was in Washington

The real power was held by this gerontocracy network of 64 year old women, who had been in the Government since George Washington, and didn't need a Rolodex (it was in their heads - well anotated). They never messed up.

I still remember "Mrs. Thomas."

[mzteris]

14. More on Dougie

". . .Hoelscher launched his political career after graduating from the University of Iowa in 1999. During the 2000 campaign, he worked for Wisconsin's Republican Party, campaign finance records show. In 2001, he was a political coordinator in the White House Office of Political Affairs, which was run by Ken Mehlman, who was Bush's Midwest regional political director in the 2000 campaign and is now the Republican National Committee chairman. (Mehlman didn't respond to an interview request.)

In 2004, Hoelscher worked for the RNC. The following year he became Homeland Security's White House liaison, "obtaining information from the department," said Joanna Gonzalez, a department spokeswoman. During Katrina, he helped deploy volunteers from the department to the Gulf Coast, she said. The congressional report on Katrina noted that some of those employees had trouble making it to the region because of departmental miscommunications. Hoelscher also "made sure were all placed in the office where they were happiest and ... fit best," Gonzalez said.

Controversial political appointments at the department include Michael Brown, the former FEMA director, who was a longtime friend of Bush's 2000 campaign director, Joe Allbaugh; Julie Myers, who's married to Chertoff's chief of staff and heads the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Bureau despite lacking law enforcement credentials; and Eduardo Aguirre Jr., a career Texas banker with Bush family ties, who was director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

One congressional staffer defended the appointment, noting that high turnover plagues the department and that Hoelscher has performed well. "He has been very proactive" in notifying Hill staffers of political appointments, the staffer said. Acknowledging Hoelscher's youth and limited experience, the staffer said that he wouldn't be left on his own: "There's plenty of adult supervision" at the department. "

http://govexec.com/dailyfed/0306/030706nj1.htm?rss=getoday