Most modern Republicans hate government. That’s a fact you need to know in order to understand what is happening under this Republican administration.

It is difficult for Republicans to get good, well-qualified, intelligent candidates to run for office these days for that very reason. When I first moved to the Northwest we had some great Republican leaders: Dan Evans, Mark Hatfield, Joel Pritchard, Wayne Morse (who became a Dem), and many others. Those were the days when a Republican could get elected in Seattle. The situation has changed, but not because we won’t elect a Republican, but because they don’t run qualified people anymore. Or more precisely, because the Republican Party is controlled by rightwing fanatics who would never allow an intelligent Republican to be nominated.

Most of the qualified Republicans, and there might actually be some, would rather work in business and make lots of money. Because there is no prestige in being a politician in the Republican Party, they have turned to hacks and losers to be their politicians. I can name a multitude of Republican candidates and officials who are outright failures in life and have no business holding office.

Locally, we had Randy Tate and Rick White, who were one-term Congressmen and were totally unqualified. Look at the recent candidates for governor the Republicans have run: John Carlson who is a talk show host with no experience of holding a real job. Dino Rossi was a fair-to-middling real estate salesman.

The best example of all is George W. Bush. This man has been a failure at everything he has done. His one business opportunity as an oilman resulted in bankruptcy and left his stockholders holding the bag, while he cashed out ahead of time. He became the owner of a baseball team by borrowing money from his rich friends. He couldn’t even be bothered showing up for his military service. Not having anything else to do, he became Governor of Texas, a state where the Governor has little real power….except to execute convicts.

The only reason he is President is because he was the son of another President, and he had rich and influential friends. Does anybody think G.W. Bush would be President now if his father was poor, or black?

The people he has appointed to office have mostly been failures. There are a few qualified people I suppose, Condi Rice perhaps. His best appointment was Colin Powell, who is long gone. Don’t talk to me about Rumsfeld and Cheney, who chose himself to be Vice President and de facto President.

Until the Republicans start to respect the power and authority of government and get some good qualified leaders, we will continue to see people like Mike Brown in positions of authority, men who are totally unqualified to hold any job, much less a position of responsibility in the government. We now have an Environmental Protection Agency full of people who hate the environment, an Education Agency headed by people who believe the agency should be abolished, and so on. It goes on throughout this Republican government.