Agenda

This post from hilzoy is the most complete I've seen on this story. At this point, all I can call it is another example of the Bush administration's general incompetence, but hilzoy notes a point from Matt Yglesias that's worth considering:

“A lot of us are asking the question,” said a senior State Department official. “How did this guy get all this business?”"

That's the question I want answered as well. Though Matt Yglesias surely has an important part of the answer: "Just one more example of how dangerous it is to have the government led by people determined to prove that government is corrupt and incompetent."

I have to admit, that comment is attractive to the conspiracy-thinker part of me, but it misses one obvious point: if the goal is to prove that government is corrupt and incompetent, why the push to put the whole thing in the hands of the most corrupt and incompetent part of it? Aren't they undercutting their own lust for power? They can't be that incompetent.

Can they?