I’m thinking of someone personally resembling and also in a position analogous to Jerome Powell. Can you think of anybody else like him?
I’m using the term “Federal government” somewhat loosely, meaning someone in a high-ish office, either appointed or elected, with responsibility for making decisions that affect lots of people. It might be a Democrat or a Republican or somebody who doesn’t openly declare their party affiliation. Not looking at members of Congress, Senators, or the Supreme Court–that would be a different discussion.
I hope the term grown-up is self-explanatory. By that I mean somebody who is compos mentis, of reasonable intelligence, who hasn’t drunk the Kool-Aid or gone over to the dark side. Somebody mostly in touch with reality who seems to have the best interests of the country and the American people at heart. I’m not saying they don’t have any ulterior motives or personal ambitions, but they’re still operating mostly the way we want our government officials to operate. They don’t have to be a paragon of virtue, and you don’t have to like them.
Is there anyone left who hasn’t been driven out, fired, replaced, or due to their own ethical principles, left in a huff. (Or in a minute and a huff.) Anyone who is still functioning, holding the government together with bleeding fingernails and a roll of duct tape? A person mostly out of the spotlight, the media, and the public eye?
My first thought was of Marco Rubio as well. But though he may fit the first two of ThelmaLou’s qualities, he’s definitely drunk the Kool-Aid. I like to hope he provides some spark of reason or sanity to ameliorate the chaos that is the trump admin 2.0, but he seems to be kowtowing and debasing himself to trump’s every whim. People are judged by their actions, not by any thoughts or feelings they may secretly harbor deep down. Rubio is either a true convert to the deplorable camp or a coward.
I read a library book recently with a title like “In Praise of Public Service.” It was about our type of personnel and staff here. None of them had been elected or appointed but just hired to do their jobs. All of them seemed respectable in the book.
I don’t think he drank the koolaid. I think it’s a deliberate calculation to position himself to run for president. I wouldn’t call that cowardice it’s soulless self promotion. The results look the same so it doesn’t matter much.
Here are some of the likely adults in the room. Chief of Staff of the Army: Gen. Randy A. George (Appointed by Biden) Commandant of the Marine Corps: Gen. Eric M. Smith (Appointed by Biden)
Gene Dodaro: Comptroller General of the United States, heading the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Of course he has a fixed 15-year term. (I think only the Senate can remove him.)
Fitting the “reasonable intelligence” criteria: Secretary of Commerce:Howard Lutnick, but he was appointed by Trump, is a Wall St. Billionaire and is in the Epstein Files. On the other hand he appears to have visited the Island by his private Yacht with his wife, so may be basically innocent.
He shows signs of mostly treating his job seriously and stays out of the news in general. Seems to be more general Republican than a MAGA or 2025 Republican.
I tend to think that soulless self promotion is a form of cowardice. People like Rubio and Lindsey Graham know what they’re doing is wrong, yet they continue to support an insane tyrant out of pure self-interest. They’re letting many, many people be hurt in order to try to save themselves. If that’s not cowardice, I don’t know what is.
Yeah this is not by accident. It is absolutely a requirement to be involved in the 2nd Trump administration you need to be an incompetent lackey who would not otherwise be trusted to run a branch of MacDonalds. Everyone needs to be completely beholden to Trump personally in every way, so they will never turn on him.
Li’l Marco’s shoes are going to be his Dukakis helmet. Humiliating himself by clomping around in oversized shoes. I wonder why Kegbreath gets to forgo the Florsheims.
It’s going to be some civil servant in a leadership position because Trump hasn’t appointed anybody. For example, Ha McNeill, who, although referred to as the Acting TSA Administrator, is really just the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator.
Career fed employee. I was commenting to someone just the other day, that when I started my career, I kept thinking that as I progressed eventually I would encounter the “gown-ups,” who were truly enacting and applying well-reasoned policy based of clear laudable goals and reliable information. As I moved through the ranks, it became apparent that pretty much everyone - at least through the regional level (of most department/Agencies), and in many aspects of national HQ - was just making shit up as they went along.
Every once in a while, I would encounter someone at the national level - an assistant commissioner here, a white house advisor there, and I’d be impressed that I was meeting someone who really was vastly more intelligent and capable than I. But such encounters were exceedingly few and far between.
I USED to have the idea that or top elected officials and a good number of the top appointees truly were exceptional individuals. I THINK there still was quite a bit of that in recent non-Trump administrations. But now? I would wager that the vast majority of capable individuals who were not fired but COULD leave - did. Many of those who stayed - for whatever reason - have been largely beaten down.
If looking for capable grown-ups, I think you would have to look for certain Congresscritters and their staff, and possibly staff at components such as the CBO. To pick an easy one, Elizabeth Warren sure qualifies a grown-up.
Would not be able to identify a single individual in my Agency who really impresses me. Of course, the turnover and reorganization has been so damned constant, that I don’t even know who is who anymore. Found it amusing that I asked a few cow-orkers recently, and none of them were even able to come up with the acronym for our component - it has changed so frequently. Yeah - changing the NAME of our department is what is needed!
I mean that’s true in every organization, definitely in tech. The idea that above a certain level it’s all galaxy brain geniuses is laughably false. It all just folks trying to make their way, get promoted, and making it up as they go.
But I’m in a DC suburb so almost everyone I know locally is a fed of some kind (or an ex fed post-DOGE ). On the whole they seem competent professional people EXCEPT during the first Trump admin I happened to hang out with a couple of Trump appointees. No one high level just ordinary “cog in the machine” types, and the contrast in terms of professionalism and skill was massive. They weren’t obviously terrible people (they weren’t particularly nice but then weren’t obviously fascist psychopaths) but holy crap they had no idea what they were doing. And I don’t think standard has gone UP in the second administration
Yeah, I was just commenting on my personal experience, which I assume most share. Same way you thought your parents knew what they were doing - until you had kids of your own…
You mention ex-feds post-DOGE. I wonder how many of those are the most competent. I wonder what percentage of “the best people” stuck around when they realized what they were up against. And they were likely to have more options than the average fed working stiff who could just duck their heads and keep collecting paychecks.
And I’ve never understood the successful demonization of governmental employees. As you say, the overwhelming majority of those I’ve met and worked with have been - at the very least - competent. And MANY work quite harder than they COULD get away with, often for not huge rates of pay.
). On the whole they seem competent professional people EXCEPT during the first Trump admin I happened to hang out with a couple of Trump appointees. No one high level just ordinary “cog in the machine” types, and the contrast in terms of professionalism and skill was massive. They weren’t obviously terrible people (they weren’t particularly nice but then weren’t obviously fascist psychopaths) but holy crap they had no idea what they were doing. And I don’t think standard has gone UP in the second administration