Sunday, 16 September 2001 : "rudman - hart report"

Tuesday's terrorist attacks had people in Washington dusting off their copies of a prescient -- if little read -- report in February by the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, co-chaired by former senator Warren B. Rudman (R-N.H.).

The commission said, among other things, that "the United States finds itself on the brink of an unprecedented crisis of competence in government" and must "improve recruitment, retention, and effectiveness at all levels."

A significant problem, the study found, is that talented people don't want to work for the government anymore. One reason is that the private sector pays vastly higher salaries. Another reason "is that there is no single overarching motivation to entice patriotic Americans to public service as there was during the Cold War," a situation that may have changed this week.

"The anti-Washington bias may play well at home," Rudman said, "but it is self-defeating. I think we've got to recognize that the best way to have a lousy government is to have [government workers] think that no one cares and thinks highly of them. If people in high positions are demeaning" government, "you won't get competent people," he said.