Lawyer-Wearing-Yarmulka

Remember how Michael Brown got raked across the coals when emails were released telling him to have his sleeves rolled up when he was on TV? How he was concerned about his clothing? He was humiliated for that, and rightfully so.

So it turns out Governor Blanco is just as is just as concerned as Brown about how she appears on television. E-mails were released, showing that Blanco is, well, just another politician. Here’s the money quote:

“"Gov. Blanco might dress down a bit and look like she has rolled up her sleeves," press consultant Kim Fuller of Witt Associates wrote in a Sept. 4 e-mail to aides including Bottcher, Mann and Kopplin. "I have some great Liz Claiborne sports clothes that look kind of Eddie Bauer, but with class, but would bring her down to level of getting to work."

Even in times of crisis, people will fret about how they look. This reminds of me of an old Simssons episode where a special news bulletin comes on TV, and you see Kent Brockman getting his hair done and he says "forget the hair, just give me the blush!", before realzing the camera is on.

Maybe this will be lesson to everyone- don't fret about how you look when there's a diaster going on around you. And if you are going to fret, don't leave any evidence of it, like, for example, an e-mail.

Special note should be made of all the staff that these people have, including protocol officers, whose function is solely to announce how a politican should act in any circumstance.

You are castigating the governor for an email sent by a consultant to an aide? None of the emails are to or from the governor herself. Or does that not matter?

No it doesn't matter. The governor employs these people for a reason-to mantain her image.

CWY,
I have to disagree with you on this one. From one perspective, you are correct. In the event of an emergency, everyone should do something to help that emergency, dropping protocol and getting things done.

But looks do matter. Its important, that when a politican appears on television, they wear makeup, lest the camera make them look yellow. Looks are important, especially for morale. The real question is the extent which we should care about these things in face of an emergency. My view is not much.

However, there is another issue to be raised, one which I think wins out. Protocol officers have no other job. If the PO calls up the police to requisition supplies, nothing will happen. So what do they do? They can sit around and do nothing, or they can do what they know, trying to manage protocol and politics as best they know how. It happens all the time.

Effective plans don't require tremendous amounts of people. Just look at the government. An emergency plan in NYC may require the NYPD and FDNY, Office of Emergency Management and the Dept. of Public Works. No one else. What do the others do? Continue working. And if one of them sends out an email "he should dress in a yellow suit" should the mayor be blamed? No. If every department in the city dropped everything to "help" you're liable to have thousands of extras running around, clueless, messing things up.