It seems that many in the media like to denigrate government employees. They sort of forget where all their services come from. Especially in the bullseye are exempt employees who have left other pursuits to work in public service for elected officials. They serve at the pleasure of the Governor. Are some of them political payoff jobs? Yes, some are. But most of these jobs require management skills and policy knowledge. The people who hold these jobs are smart and dedicated and yet they are treated with incredible disrespect by talk radio and editorial pages.
In a few weeks many of these exempt employees will be out on the street as Governor Martinez brings in her own crew. This is how it works and no one should complain. These exempt employees knew this could happen when they took their jobs. Now, they are going to scramble along with many others in finding ways to support their families. It will be a stressful time. I know because I have been there several times in my life. It will be especially hard to find work in this recession.
I would like to thank them for their public service. Working in government is not easy and overall they served the public well. They have solid experience and institutional knowledge that can be tapped again someday.
4 comments:
Exactly. And it took a master politician like Bill Clinton, when he let Newt Gingrich and a gang of recently elected twits like Heather Wilson, shut government down and take the peoples' wrath, to demonstrate their BS. The majority of people remember that government exists because we the people created it, and there is nothing government does that we the people did not at some point decide needs to be done. You can just read the history of a town like Albuquerque and see, as it grew, how needs came into being one by one, and were identified by the affected people who then got their government to do something about it. 'Hey, we need water over here.' 'Hey, we need police protection.' Conservatives talk about government as if it sits in a secret chamber deciding what it wants to do, but each one of those needs was talked about and decided on in an open democratic process. Alas, it seems a Bill Clinton comes along once in a Democratic lifetime. So Martin Heinrich, Jeff Bingaman, Tom Udall: take heed.
Yo, Bubba ... just to keep things close to being factual - the events you cite for Clinton happened in '95 or '96 - verdad? Wilson was at CYFD at that point and was the victor of a special election in June '98 ... as I recall. Right Jim?
- John Fremont
right
Yo yourself John Fremont
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/housevote/nm.htm
Clinton was impeached Dec 19, 1998 on four counts. Heather Wilson voted yea on all four.
Just to keep things factual.
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