What is it about Bush and political appointments?

UPDATED: 5/29 below.

Can this person NOT appoint someone based solely on experience relevant to the job and trustworthiness? It seems like every single appointment in this administration has been a reward for loyal behavior to the president. This goes beyond cronyism. How can 23 year olds with no banking experience end up in charge of rebuilding Iraq’s financial institutions? How can a lawyer for an Arabian Horse Association end up in charge of FEMA? How can a 33 year old from one of the lowest ranked law schools in the country with no experience as a prosecutor end up being central in the hiring and firing of the entire U.S. Department of Justice? I see now that many immigration lawyers appointed by this administration where based on loyalty to the Bush administration and do not have much, if any, experience in immigration law. I even read where the person in charge of women’s health in this country is an ex-veterinarian. How insulting is this to someone who cares about the subject?

Now, I see that a leading contender to replace Paul Wolfowitz, he of the neo-con cabal most responsible for the Iraq war and his scandal-ridden term at the World Bank is none other than Bill Frist. You remember him, the doctor, ex-Representative from Tennessee who so “successfully” diagnosed Terry Shavio from a video? When I first heard about this, I thought it was a joke. It was funny, just because it would be so true-to-form. Turns out that truth is weirder than humor with Bush. What possible credentials does this man have to run a large-scale financial organization? Do credentials not matter to these people at all?

One of the many things that this distraction will be remembered for, besides ginning up a false reason for invading a country that was not threatening us, lying to the public about that reason, and then prosecuting the war so incompletely that I don’t think they could have done a worse job of it if they had actually tried to screw it up is the rampant cronyism and political favoritism.

UPDATE: I saw where Frist took himself out of consideration for this job. Probably a wise move on his part. If nothing else, bloggers were going to have a field day.