If you could have any job in government, what would it be? And I mean a job you’d be remotely qualified to perform. I know you’d all make excellent Secretaries of State, but seriously…
About The Author
BooMan
Martin Longman a contributing editor at the Washington Monthly. He is also the founder of Booman Tribune and Progress Pond. He has a degree in philosophy from Western Michigan University.
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Recent Comments
Hmm. Senior Economist at BEA, BLS or the Congressional Budget Office. No real interest in listening to other countries gripe, so no real interest in SecState anyway.
My credentials and understanding of public finance are a fair bit better than the temp agency owner who needed only about 12 hours to find ways to improve the effectiveness of the Federal budget. Heh.
I would like to be a sinecure, one of those faceless bureaucrats that does very little, but has a high degree of job security.
But seriously…
I’d be a great speechwriter: does that count as government work if your employer is a senator, congressman, or other elected official?
Can I get one o’ them sinecure jobs? I can do nothing with the best of them.
I believe you want this.
H&HS
Cyber-security Czar.
I’d like to be Ambassador to New Zealand. I think I’m very qualified. I speak English and I like Hobbits.
even though they don’t wear shoes to photograph? 😉
LOL!!
how does on ebecome a speechwirter?
i would LOVE to do that.
I don’t know but I’ll be your editor 😉
I started when I was 15 and did it off and on for various people for almost 10 years. I only got started because my mom said I had to have a job and a lady from the mosque needed someone to help her write a speech. She wound up employing me and I’d travel around sometimes with her when she gave speeches. In turn, she hooked me up with other people and it went from there. I don’t know how one becomes a speechwriter for a politician. I assume you start small and connections do the rest.
I’d be a kick-ass Comptroller
Ambassador to Andorra. I speak fluent Andoreese.
in the Justice Department of a progressive administration standing up for civil rights or a speech writer/communications consultant helping hone a progressive message.
Or an ambassador to a lovely, warm weather climate which is a peace and no serious diplomacy is required!
NOC (non-official cover). I have everything but the paramilitary training.
GLBT Outreach person. LOL
Better yet Party Planner. LOL
Secretary of Style?
Sounds good to me.
I see so far we don’t have any White House interns. Odd.
Drug Czar.
As long as I could get my mission to be: dismantle the DEA, then fire myself and turn the lights off.
But since they don’t offer that, how about Executive Director of the National Archives? 😉 Give me all that access!!!
I know it’s easy to think that because you see signs everywhere and feel the excitement that Obama is going to win PA.
But that’s not what the polls are showing. From RealClearPolitics:
RCP Average 04/02 – 04/08 Clinton +7.8
InsiderAdvantage 04/08 – 04/08 Clinton +10.0
PPP (D) 04/07 – 04/08 Clinton +3.0
Rasmussen 04/07 – 04/07 Clinton +5.0
SurveyUSA 04/05 – 04/07 Clinton +18.0
Strategic Vision (R) 04/04 – 04/06 Clinton +5.0
Quinnipiac 04/03 – 04/06 Clinton +6.0
Time 04/02 – 04/06 Clinton +8.0
and each poll has an error factor of??? */- 3 to 5. Considering she was leading by 30 points last year, I ain’t to worried.
Remember, if she wins in single digits, she loses.
I know. But if he even wins by a smidgen, it’s all over. And I can’t WAIT for it to be ALL OVER!!!!!
Secretary of Defense–I know how to travel..you get all Americans on planes heading West out of Iraq.
Head of NSA so we can focus on Al Qaeda phone calls and not those of Americans (except those of Dick Cheney and his neocon friends.)
Great things can happen if you only ask.
I have some basic grasp of many of the issues the FCC regulares, enough background to understand a lot of the other issues, and I think it would be great to see a commissioner representing the consumer side of communications. Plus I have an Extra Class ham radio license. Someone on the Commission should have one of those.
Apart from that, some kind of policy wonk in Commerce handling issues of copyrights, patents, and communications. Oh, and trust-busting the RIAA/MPAA.
Commissioner of the IRS, of course, being a tax and spend Democrat.
Here’s the page and especially the relevant oversight:
And if I was appointed tomorrow, the first thing I’d do is fire the Chief Information Officer and hire someone competent and/or ethical.
Thing is, doing that job is not really a stretch and it’s a job that scads of people would be qualified to perform…except, apparently, those currently in the respective roles in the WH. (Assuming that unethical behavior is not supposed to be a job requirement.)
and her predecessors have shown that being a press secretary is nothing more than barking at the questions and sticking to talking points, I think I would offer a pleasant change. I would AGREE with Helen Thomas and tell her she does a wonderful job of being able to sit there day after day without barfing! I would note that their questions have merit, but sorry I cannot comment on them as somebody or other has opened up a civil suit in that area in Tobogo. I would admire their efforts to dress nicely for the cameras and show off whatever new do I had for the day. (Since I would be behind the podium at all times (escape hatch under it!) I would only need to worry about jacket and shirt myself!
And I would always start out the session extolling all the folks in the administration that actually made it to work and remembered their parking space!
Postmaster General
carrying mail for 22 years, that’s what I’d be most qualified for. Oh, the costs I could cut; like pruning a dying tree of diseased branches, I’d slash bean counters and coffee-cup holders and invest in fuel efficient vehicles, and a computer network that is fully networked, not the cheapest to be found. I’d change work methods to conform to logic and reality instead of computer projections and nonsensical rules that cause stressed-out employees to go postal. I’d remove time pressures and the need for 2/3 of the managers by changing to a per-diem pay scale instead of a by the minute pay scale for carriers.
Thanks for that little fantasy.