WASHINGTON
When we examine the horrifying consequences of most of our recent
natural and man-made disasters and the way some people are still
waiting for assistance, some of us immediately think this is one
more example of the Nanny Society.
From Hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the scandals of the
Department of Homeland Security through fears of avian flu, to the
intentions of the Hillary Clinton election team, everything comes
back to the Nannies.
The Nanny State is a strange, stuck-up, outdated way of
describing a society controlled by old and new laws passed by
legislators excited by a sudden opportunity to abuse elected power.
When we elected Congressman Blowhard to the U.S. Congress we hoped
he would concentrate on big issues, such as national defense or
domestic crime. Instead he supported a new housing code -- for dog
houses -- in San Francisco, meal plans to avoid obesity and moral
management -- controlling our sins by excise taxes and vice laws
outdated even when Lucy Mercer Rutherford was Franklin Delano
Roosevelt's mistress.
Originally, Nanny was the strait-laced lady from the "lower
classes" who ruled the lives of Victorian-era children from the
middle and upper classes whose parents were busy taking tea and
running an empire. Then it evoked memories of kids being told to
wash behind their ears, drink their castor oil, eat their greens and
be seen but not heard. But it was all for their own good.
The Nanny State now means unwelcome interference in personal
freedom. And as television networks ratchet up the alarm about
hurricanes and pandemics, the Nannies in government and, even worse,
nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) move in with more regulations
and rules.
Do what Nanny tells you and your problems are no longer yours
alone. You no longer have any responsibility; saying "sorry" will
bring immediate forgiveness.
And remember, Nanny is good and lovable and often wears the
disguise of a nice, liberal, bossy but benevolent zealot who is
called "counselor."
After years of living under the rule of bureaucratic Nannies
giving them orders, many in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast only knew
to wait, and still are, for others to pay for their rebuilding.
Their decision-making capability has been taken from them -- "for
their own good."
The culture of entitlement has lulled too many of us into the
belief that we are living in a safe, if not secure, environment,
entitled to having any "harm" that comes to us be seen as the
opportunity to become a millionaire -- and not just payment for
having shirked responsibility and set aside common sense. Stand up
against your elected government and the Nanny State will win in a
fight that will make a Kilkelly catfight look like a harmonious
duet.
This brings us to Hillary Rodham Clinton and her Fearless Femmes.
With the election a year away, New York's junior U.S. senator is
paying eight of her staffers, mostly earning salaries in the
$100,000 range, additional monthly bonuses from $670 to $2,600 each.
This pocket change compensates them for working on her campaign.
While the salaries come from the Treasury, the bonus payments are
a part of HILLPAC, Sen. Clinton's political action committee, and
the Friends of Hillary re-election campaign war chest of some $15
million.
Hillary's Fearless Femmes include Lorrie McHugh-Wytkind, her
communications director, whose $100,000 salary is being supplemented
by $2,600 a month. Lorrie had spent seven years in the Clinton
administration as a White House press secretary, as chief
spokesperson for Health and Human Services and as director of OSHA's
public affairs office. Before Hillary, she worked as a consultant
for the Glover Park Group. She graduated from Georgetown University,
has two children, lives in Bethesda with her husband, Edward
Wytkind, president of the Transportation Trades Department, which
represents 29 affiliated unions.
The Glover Park Group and John Kerry's campaign provided another
of the fearless femmes -- Sarah Gegenheimer, whose media career
began at Chelsea High School in Michigan in 1990. She now gets
$90,000 a year as a deputy press secretary and a monthly sweetener
of $2,200.
Then there is Tamera Luzzatto, a consummate Senate organizer and
Hillary's chief of staff ($135,000 plus $1,740 a month), a Harvard
graduate who worked for West Virginia Sen. Jay Rockefeller for 15
years before being poached by the head girl.
Last of the inner circle is Karen Persichilli-Keogh, the New York
state director whose near $2,000 monthly bonus supplements a Senate
salary of $85,000. Karen's husband, Mike, is political director of
New York's massive union, District Council 37.
These Fearless Femmes will join with Cheryl Mills, the star
lawyer who defended Bill Clinton during his impeachment hearings;
Patti Solis Doyle, sister of a Chicago alderman and Hillary's
longtime scheduler, now head of fundraising at HILLPAC; and Ann
Lewis, the political strategist.
And, there is talk of Geraldine Ferraro joining the Fearless
Femmes -- potentially making it the strongest Nanny group in the
world.
But there is hope. We can defeat the Fearless Femmes and the
Nannies by changing our culture from one of entitlement to one of
responsibility.
Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British
journalist and political observer.
