Heckuva Job

Kenneth Tomlinson is being investigated again. Last year he was ousted from his job as head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for trying to convert the PBS and NPR to conservative mouthpieces. This year the State Department looked into the way he was using his office as head of an agency responsible for State Department broadcasts to foreign countries. From today's NY Times.

State Department investigators have found that the head of the agency overseeing most government broadcasts to foreign countries has used his office to run a “horse racing operation” and that he improperly put a friend on the payroll, according to a summary of a report made public on Tuesday by a Democratic lawmaker.

The report said that the official, Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, had repeatedly used government employees to perform personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit.

The summary of the report, prepared by the State Department inspector general, said the United States attorney’s office here had been given the report and decided not to conduct a criminal inquiry.

...Mr. Tomlinson, a Republican with close ties to the White House, was ousted last year from another post, at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, after another inquiry found evidence that he had violated rules meant to insulate public television and radio from political influence. [Emphasis added]

You'd think after being fired from one government job would make Mr. Tomlinson a little more circumspect in his other government job. Apparently, however, that was considered unnecessary for "a Republican with close ties to the White House." Unfortunately, that probably was a sensible choice by Mr. Tomlinson. No criminal inquiry is on the way, and the Emperor has renominated him to the Voice of America position. That's how cronyism works.