Rand Simberg highlights a quote from the Fred Thompson archives in which Sen. Thompson discusses the incompetence of government, and one of its causes.
A big part of the problem is our outmoded civil-service system that makes it too hard to hire good employees and too hard to fire bad ones. The bureaucracy has become gargantuan, making accountability and reform very difficult.
Faced with this managerial swampland, the number of talented executives willing to come to Washington continues to dwindle. Those who do accept the challenges usually want to tackle big national goals in the few years they spend in public service instead of fighting their own agencies. So the bureaucracy just keeps rolling along.
The quotation comes from a recent Thompson commentary on the radio show Paul Harvey News & Comment, on which Thompson has been serving as guest host.
Thompson starts the essay by quoting the late, great Yankees manager Casey Stengel:
Wasn’t it Casey Stengel, the old baseball manager, who said one day after the third dropped fly-ball in the outfield, “can’t anybody here play this game?” That’s sort of the way I feel when I watch certain parts of our government in action.
Might Thompson want to be the next general manager?
Update: Mark Kilmer at Red State compares Thompson's essay with one penned 31 years ago by red.
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