TOPICS
TOPICS
OPM's James rallies GOP troops
James spoke Monday to the Minnesota delegation at a breakfast meeting at the Marriott East Side hotel in Manhattan. "Serving this president is no joke," James told the swing state delegation, reminding them that he is the first president with an MBA and is an avid baseball fan. "He likes to win, he likes to keep score and he demands results."
It's common for political appointees in the executive branch to stump for their bosses, though they have to perform such political work on their own time. James appeared at the meeting with Education Secretary Rod Paige. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao and Agriculture Secretary Anne Veneman are among the other Cabinet secretaries in New York this week.
James devoted most of her speech to discussing President Bush's record to encourage the Minnesotans to get out the vote. But she also spent a few moments talking about her job as OPM director--without mentioning OPM specifically. Rather, James described herself as the head of the civil service.
"It is now honorable to be an American civil servant because of what this president has done," James said, pointing to Bush's response to the Sept. 11 attacks, tax cuts, education reform and Medicare prescription drug benefits.
She also said Bush was the reason she is a public servant, explaining that he encouraged her to go into government years ago. "There is nothing better," James said, "than serving this president at this point in time."
COMMENTS
- Director James may want to consider showing a little more discretion (and leadership) in her choices. With all the time she is devoting to stumping for her political master, she may want to consider how much of her work remains unfinished. Appearances do matter. Her behavior certainly highlights what is expected from a successful political appointee in this administartion. Loyalty and support to the master while others in OPM continue to work, unheralded, behind the scenes. Ms. James will be long gone soon, but Government Employees (restricted from stumping by Hatch) will be left to fix her mistakes. GovExec.com reader Posted September 1, 2004 11:30 AM
- Who is paying for this political trip & how much is it costing?? What happen to the Hatch Act? If I did what James did I'd be fired due to the Hatch Act. GovExec.com reader Posted August 31, 2004 8:38 AM
- I couldn't agree more with Director James: "Serving this president is no joke," James told the swing state delegation, reminding them that he is the first president with an MBA and is an avid baseball fan. "He likes to win, he likes to keep score and he demands results." Serving this president is no joke. I teach conflict management and the real danger of having a "Driver" management style is that while you do obtain results there is no analysis of whether these same results could have been obtained without putting your team in the hospital. There is little understand that human beings obtain the results needed by the Driver, not cogs in some giant organizational machine. I question the type of score this president is measuring and the human cost of the results he is achieving. This is the job that Director James should be doing- questioning the human cost to the civil service- not rah rahing. There seems to be no dissent even from those whose job it is to dissent. HR Specialist GovExec.com reader Posted August 31, 2004 8:04 AM
