Hurray! Louis Caldera, the “brains” behind Scare Force One, has resigned.
I can only imagine the behind-the-scenes pressure that brought about the resignation. He did what he needed to do to keep President Obama from having to either fire him or explain why there was no firing.
Details of Obama’s special investigation into the matter have not yet been released, but the resignation seems to be explanation enough.
Good riddance. Let’s hope a lot of lessons have been learned here, including how to vet appointees in the first place. Rule Number One: No idiots!
At least the guy was willing to admit that he was to blame. That shows character.
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Maybe. Some people go through life hoping they can always get a pass by saying “my bad” if they get caught screwing up. That’s more like playing the system.
I thought of your blog post when first hearing about this resignation/dismissal (I coin the word “quitfired”) on NPR the other day. Perhaps we need someone to write a book titled “When Good People Have Bad Ideas”.
To an extent we all go through life this way, which is why we need education that takes fault tolerance fully into account. Most of our mistakes, thankfully, are minor, excusable, and should cumulatively build our sense of humility without eroding confidence.
Unfortunately, as you responded to leafless, there are way too many players out there who are never forced to confront their own incompetence. This is not their fault exclusively. The system supports and even rewards their folly. And we all help that system out by not having good ways to critique others’ screw ups in an honest, non-stinging way.
Also unfortunate is that it’s practically impossible to screen out idiots in the hiring process as it’s currently practiced by modern HR offices.
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And no doubt if there were a way to screen out idiots, it would be challenged in court and struck down as discriminatory. And then we’d see an affirmative action group for idiots, etc., etc., ad nauseam.
The Peter Prinicple is alive and well. At least in this case the poor judgment was exposed and the individual removed before anyone got hurt. That hasn’t always been the case.