The case against the case against political appointees.

• Author: Peters, Charles
• Position: Tilting at Windmills - Brief Article

For reasons that will quickly become understandable, I have been uncomfortable with all the condemnation of political appointees that has followed in the wake of Katrina. You see, I was once a political appointee myself. I was brought to Washington because I had managed John Kennedy's campaign in my West Virginia county in 1960.

I went to work for a political appointee, Sargent Shriver, who turned out to be a great leader of the Peace Corps. He, however, was skeptical about other political appointees, and he didn't know me, so I was given a job--called "Consultant to the General Counsel"--in which my capacity for doing any harm was modest indeed. I felt embarrassed that I was "political." I eagerly volunteered for assignments that would give me a chance to prove that I wasn't a hack but had some ability, and that I was as dedicated as my colleagues to the mission of my agency.

The general atmosphere at the agency was so free of partisanship that I recall one day Shriver and Bill Moyers danced into my office with joy as they celebrated having recruited an outstanding Republican, William...