The current administration has managed to achieve an impressive number of record-breaking worsts.
Early Winners
- George W. Bush – our worst President ever. Yes, even worse than James Buchanan
- Richard Cheney – worst
Vice President ever - Donald Rumsfeld – worst SecDef ever
- Alberto Gonzales – worst AG ever (despite tough competition)
- John Bolton – worst UN Ambassador ever
- Alphonso Jackson – worst HUD Secretary ever
- Michael D. Brown – worst FEMA Director ever
Additional Nominees
- Dr. Condoleezza Rice – arguably worst National Security Advisor ever
(gunning for SecState nomination too) - John Snow – worst Secretary of the Treasury since the Depression
(and maybe before?) Tommy ThomsponTom Ridge vs. Michael Chertoff. One of them has to be the worst
HDHS Secretary ever, as they are the only two in the department’s history.
My money is onThompsonRidge.- Margret Spellings
– worst Secretary of Education? - Harriet Miers – worst White House Counsel?
- [update] Tommy Thompson – HHS (for presiding over this)?
Care to add to the list?
John Yoo, worst attorney ever to serve at the Office of Legal Counsel of the DOJ, possibly (if you consider the extent and toxicity of the effects of his advice) in any other position of US government.
Sorry, but John Mitchell retired the worst AG ever many years ago. The most Gonzalez, or any future AG, can hope for is a tie.
Well, I don’t think they’ll get the “worst military commanders” award, even though the generals in charge have been rather blatantly careerist. Sorry, but so many of the Federal commanders in the Civil War have that locked up.
But General Miller–the torture-loving one, right?–might be in the running for the “Genghis Kahn” award for bloody-minded inhumanity, though. Even Sherman had a conscience.
I think that the combination of Pierce and Buchanan were worse than Bush. After all, their weaknesses and torpidity nurtured the Civil War, which led to the deaths of about 5% of the US population.
But Bush is the worst active President. So bad that it can’t be an accident. The underlying principles by which he (and his coterie) govern must be fundamentally flawed. The principles I identify as being in operation are
For his admin’s most public face, in a fantastic hat trick, Bush has treated us to Ari Fleischer, Scott McClellan, and Snowy, the THREE WORST press secretaries.
I think it was Tom Ridge, not Tommy Thompson, who was head of D(not H)HS.
I have to agree with DMH. Until Gonzales goes to the slammer, Mitchell is still the worst.
Surely Harriet Meirs has edged out both Harold G. Carswell and Clement G. Haynsworth to claim the title of Worst Supreme Court nominee in addition to being the Worst Counsel to the President.
It strikes me, in an entirely different sense, that John Dean also has a claim to the latter title, although the contrast between his claim and Harriet Meirs could not be greater.
John Dudas for worst Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, ever. It is no accident that he nickname both inside and outside the PTO is “Dumbass.”
John Dudas for worst Commissioner of Patents and Trademarks, ever. It is no accident that he nickname both inside and outside the PTO is “Dumbass.”