McClatchy on Pat Roberts: Obama gives backing to Kansas Republican’s ridiculed plan
Because it wasn’t too long ago that the Kansas Republican took a pretty sharp elbow from a nonprofit government-watchdog group over a scholarship program he set up to train future intelligence officers. It turns out, though, that he might have been something of a visionary.
Here’s what happened:
Citizens Against Government Waste gave Roberts the Narcissist Award in its latest edition of the “Pig Book,” a compendium of allegedly wasteful government spending. The $2 million earmark that he’d requested for the Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program was included.
Roberts set up the pilot program four years ago when he was the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Its purpose was to train workers in the intelligence community in specialized areas where it was deficient, such as language skills, regional studies and new technology.
“When we created the program, intelligence agencies were losing highly qualified recruits to the private sector,” Roberts said. “We needed a tool to attract some of the best and brightest to government service.”
The Pig Book authors labeled his earmark one of the “oinkers” and recognized his “dogged perseverance in the mad pursuit of pork.”
The intelligence community, meanwhile, loved the program.
“It was a tremendous idea,” said Ron Sanders, an associate director of national intelligence for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
Related Posts:
- Powerline: How much damage did the NY Times do to national security?
- K-State School Of Leadership Studies’ Inaugural Susan M. Scott Community Leadership Award To Susan Allen
- Stephanie Rolley To Head K-State’s Department Of Landscape Architecture And Regional And Community Planning
- Weekly Standard: Is Obama Trying to Kill the CIA; Was Leon Panetta hired primarily to oversee the dismantling of the CIA?
- Dave Helling on Pat Roberts, Obamacare
Tags: Citizens Against Government Waste, Narcissist Award, Pat Roberts Intelligence Scholars Program
