Count me among the many bloggers who have a bout of head-scratching over the appointment of Julie Myers to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency within the DHS. Since the GOP base has become increasingly restless anyway about the Bush administration's lack of focus on the southern border, one would hope that the President would at least have appointed someone who had experience and knowledge of the subject matter for him or herself, even if the topic does not interest Bush -- perhaps especially if the topic does not interest him.

Apparently not.

Instead, the White House proposes to put a 36-year-old bureaucrat with no immigration experience, no experience leading any organization this size, and whose last assignment consisted of being Bush's HR specialist.

What gives?

And get this -- for an HR specialist, she appears oddly ignorant of nepotism issues. She just married Michael Chertoff's chief of staff, the same Michael Chertoff to whom she will report, presumably through her new husband. Add in that her uncle, General Richard Myers, is just finishing up his tour as chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and we have all the makings of an episode of All In The Family. What we don't have are the ingredients for a professional and focused approach on immigration enforcement.

I suspect that Karl Rove has either found other work that keeps him occupied these days, or that the master may have been overrated somewhat. After the debacles of Michael Brown at FEMA and Bernie Kerik's nomination to Chertoff's position, one would hope that the White House would have taken this position more seriously. Unfortunately, it looks like people in the administration have not learned the painful lessons of hack appointments.

See Michelle Malkin for a linkfest of annoyed conservatives.

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