Goodbye, Francis Harvey, And Don't Let the Door Hit You...

Being off line over the weekend, I wasn’t able before to pop off on the case of Francis J. Harvey, who was canned, er, resigned as Secretary of the Army in the dustup over Walter Reed Hospital—perhaps the first act of responsible government in the six years of the Bush administration. Of course I don’t know any more than any other newspaper reader as to exactly what chuffed Defense Secretary Robert Gates into making his move. But before anybody forgets: it was Harvey, in hunker-down mode just last week, tried to fob it off on the hired help. In his immortal words:

We had some N.C.O.’s who weren’t doing their job, period.

Just in case there is any confusion or misunderstanding on the point: this is contemptible. It’s the worst form of irresponsible management: indecent in human terms but also, not less, unspeakably bad tactics. Just a few weeks ago, here was Harvey addressing a class of senior noncoms at the Army Sergeant Majors Academy (link):

Harvey stated upfront that the Army’s noncommissioned officer corps is key to its success and is the envy of every army around the world.

He did not add:

and if there are ever any problems on my watch, be certain that I will blame them on you.

Contemptible, but after Abu Ghraib, par for the course. Recall that he works for a president who, when asked if he’d many bad decisions, responded “I made some mistakes in appointing people..”—i.e., blame it on somebody else. Welcome to the world of kick-down management.

Fn: I see that others picked up on this before I got here (e.g., link). No apologies here; more the merrier, I say, this guy deserves all the humiliation he can get.