Primary Qualification: Drinking the Kool-Aid

Apparently the primary qualification for working in the Bush administration is drinking their Kool-Aid. Actually being capable of doing your job well can be a strike against you. Recent revelations indicate that it could even disqualify you totally from consideration, or get you fired.

The Bush administration has seemingly confused political rankings with performance. The Washington Post reports that internal Department of Justice documents chart Patrick Fitzgerald as a mediocre prosecutor, despite widespread views from his peers that he is one of the best in the nation.

The Post characterizes the DOJ chart as an attempt to rank U.S. Attorneys to provide purpose for their removal. Two other attorneys receiving the same ranking as Fitzgerald were fired. Fitzgerald himself, who was appointed the White House's special counsel in the Valerie Plame leak case, was not. Clearly there is another metric in use here to determine who gets fired. If you don’t drink the Bush Kool-Aid, you must be a poor performer.