European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 22, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse Thursday March 222007 s tars and stripes Page is opinion fall Guys pay dearly for whiff of culpability we erred army medical cd by Rachel dry the Washington Post chief of staff Kyle Sampson was the perfect Man for the Job his former Boss attorney Gen eral Alberto Gonzales was refer ring to the Job Sampson did in singling out weak performers in us attorneys offices nationwide but after the unceremonious firing of eight Federal prosecutors raised criticism of Gonzales Justice department Sampson was again the perfect Man for the Job of fall Guy he resigned last week with out much Chance to make arrangements for work in the private sector and save face regarding the reason for leaving that was Simpsons own suggestion for How fired us attorneys should leave office detailed in an email to the White House counsel Harriet Miers Many who have walked the Halls of government have lied about paying for sex or taking Vicuna fur Coats under the table and have been forced out of office because of own misdeeds but the fall Guy a term of Art not a precise a Dif Ferent Breed they Are not the cos to use the term Gonzales applied to his Steward ship at Justice but they have enough Power claim a whiff of culpability or have it claimed for them below Are some who have been left twist ing sometimes not so slowly in the wind army maj Gen George Weightman was fired in the Wake of the revelations about substandard conditions at Walter Reed army medical Center he got the Boot six months after assuming command prompting Republican rep cd Bui Young to say of Weightman i dont know him but i know Hes the fall Guy since his 2005 indictment i Lewis Scooter Libby has taken the sole hit in the Cia leak investigation everyone from democratic sen Charles Schumer to the jurors who convicted vice president Dick Cheney former chief of staff of perjury said Libby was the fall Guy Michael Brown who went from Arabi an horses to the Federal emergency management Agency bore the Brunt of Public outrage for the administrations bumbling after Hurricane katrina and resigned defense Secretary Ardonald Rumsfeld said i take full responsibility for the abuse at Iraq Abu Gharib prison but Brig Gen Janis Karpinski was the highest ranking officer punished in the scandal and was demoted to colonel Roger Altai an want the Only Clinton administration official to resign during Whitewater but the Deputy Treasury Secre tary did fight the hardest to stay saying he did not intend to be the administrations fall Guy the Best of intentions got in the Way of what was Best for the president and Altman eventually left saying he hoped to Dimin ish the controversy adm Frank Kelso said he would be the fall Guy and the investigation should Stop with him when he stepped Down As chief of naval operations after the navys 1991 Tail Hook sexual harassment scandal Anne Gorsuch Burford reagans environmental Protection Agency director slashed and burned the budget at the expense environmental Protection she also refused to turn Over super fund records and was cited for contempt of Congress after being forced to resign she seemed to revel in fall girl status later writ ing that when congressional criticism about the Epa began to touch the presidency or Reagan solved his problem by jettisoning me and my people people whose Only crime was Loyal service following or Ders eventually almost everyone fell during watergate but among the first were Campaign aide Herbert Porter and Jeb Stuart Magruder then number two at the commit tee to reelect the president White House counsel John Dean feared hed be the fall Guy so instead he went to prosecutors chief of staff or Haldeman and top adviser John Ehrlichman were also forced out but not before president Nixon called them two of the finest Public servants it has been my privilege to know shortly after the Bay of pigs invasion went horribly wrong president Kennedy told Richard Bissell top aide at Cia that Bis sell and Cia director Allen Dulles would be taking the fall if this were a parliamentary government i would have to resign and you a civil servant would stay on Bissell re called the president telling him but being the system of government it is a presidential government you will have to resign Lee majors played to Hunter Colt seavers on the 1980s Abc Tele vision series the fall Guy seavers took real Falls out of burning helicopters or Speed ing cars Simpsons role was perhaps a Little easier to play Rachel dry is on the posts Outlook staff welfare Reform Model can work for men who dont by Lawrence Mead reforms in the 1990s shifted More than 60 percent of mothers off the welfare Rolls mostly into jobs the changes used both help and hassle new subsidies for wages and child care coupled with stiffer demands to work As a condition of Aid so How could we do the same for Lowin come men Low income men often the absent fathers of welfare families got Little at Tention from the reforms because they Are Seldom on welfare themselves like Moth ers on welfare they Seldom work regularly and this helps to keep families poor in 2005 there were More than 7 million poor men Ages 16 to 50 in the United states and Only half of them worked at All among Black men in poverty nearly two thirds were Idle and their employment has fallen steadily in recent decades Why Are lows killed men withdrawing from work just when unskilled jobs appear plentiful and immigrants Are flooding into the country to take them one reason might be that the wages these men could earn have fallen so the thinking goes Why work for chump change yet these men failed to work More even in the 1990s when wages for lows killed jobs Rose its More Likely that male work discipline has deteriorated poor men want to work and succeed yet Many cannot endure the slights and disappointments that work involves that Why poor men usually can obtain jobs yet Seldom keep them employing larger numbers of Low income men int going to be easy Congress is Likely to raise the minimum wage and wage subsidies for lows killed men could also be in creased but if Low wages Are not the main cause of male no work these Steps will change Little coupling new benefits to definite de mands to work is what drove welfare Moth ers to work and then rewarded them the same is probably True Here nonworking men deserve to earn More but they also must be required to work formerly they could have entered the army where they could be ordered to work and military service does help some men get the lives together unfortunately today Volunteer military is too selective to accept most disadvantaged applicants a idea is to use the child support system which requires absent fathers to sup port their families and the criminal Justice system which is supposed to supervise Many a offenders on parole after they leave prison right now these institutions de press male work Levels by Locking men up and by garnishing their wages if they do work but they could be used to promote work for example men in arrears on their child support could be assigned to work pro Grams As could parolees with employment problems these men about 15 million each year would have to show up and work regularly on penalty of going to jail both groups might also receive wage subsidies the combination might instill More regular work habits mandatory work programs Haven shown that they can raise work Levels for men the Way they did for women in welfare Reform however past programs were not implemented Well and new experiments in prison reentry programs Are being evaluated mandatory work for 15 million men would Cost billion to billion a year in return governments would collect More in child support and spend less on incarceration in 2005 the average state Cost per in mate was prison work programs could More than fund themselves if they functioned Well enough that More a offend ers could be released Early the nation needs work requirements for nonworking men who owe debts to society like welfare Reform that policy might appear severe but its aim is integration through steadier work these men can come in from the cold Lawrence Mead is a political science professor at new York University this column which first appeared in the Washington Post summarizes a paper he wrote for a Brookings institution project on Antipoverty policy that will be published later this year in the journal the future of children prickly City by Scott Stantis we slow wet to vow so my invt by hb2 the wifi 14 j
