Only Some Mentors are Disappointed Today.

In light of Eric Black's stories on the Mike Hatch/Lori Swanson regime, I went back into my archives to find a post I thought I'd written prior to the last election for attorney general, in which I thought I'd quoted a source in the AG's office: "If you like Mike, you'll love Lori."

I think the ambiguity was deliberate.

Turns out, I'd written it in a private communication, but now you have it. This person did not at all approve of Hatch's management style or uncomfortable, often crude communication style, but on balance believed Hatch's heart was in the right place.

I guess we'll see in part two of Black's report whether that view is still represented.

Some people will thrive under an overbearing boss; some crumple and others just grumble. As a former — and sometimes possibly overbearing — boss, I understand how hard-drivers can be frustrated by get-alongers and half-assers. Perhaps the AG's office had a few of those when Hatch came in, but a good manager would've had them out quickly and not brought in any more.

Black's account sounds like a let's-separate-the-men-from-the-boys style of abusive, politically driven leadership helped create the current management problems.

As I futilely searched for that quote, I came across an old post that reminded me Hatch's penchant for insulting the media didn't start with Eric Black and MinnPost.

As his gubernatorial race came down to the wire, Mike Hatch was trying to clarify that he merely called a reporter a media hack — not a media whore. Allow me to rerun my glossary:

Was Mike Hatch misheard, or was he stumbling, Kerry-like, as he tried to select the proper term of opprobrium from a rich lode of invective against the media? Let's review some of the possibilities, along with the distinctions among them.

A whore performs a repulsive and demeaning act for pay — and pretends to be excited about it.

A hack performs the same act for pay and acts bored — while trying to figure out who else will pay him for the same job.

A jackal works in packs and rarely does any original work — but is capable of surviving entirely on regurgitated material.

A flack performs the same insipid act over and over, hoping to do it well enough to advance to hack.

A hound only masquerades as a member of the media in order to attract coverage by the hack or the whore.

Today Scott McClellan's new book, and the reaction to it, call for an addition.

A mouthpiece speaks the speech as they pronounced it to him, trippingly on the tongue. Some lose the taste for it once they discover the lie, but others...

Comments

[Rod Loper]

Note how these administration stalwarts never
dispute the facts presented. Always attack the messenger and blur the message. The big
narrative for me here is the perpetual ideol
ogically-driven campaign by people who were not really interested in governing. They were good at winning elections but the anti-
government ideology rotted their regime from the inside.