DEMOCRATS’ MORAL LOW GROUND

Also published on Newsmax.

Liberals hoped that selectively purging their ranks of their rankest elements would give them the moral high ground to drive President Trump from office by declaring him a sexual predator. 

What happened instead was liberals in the media, government, and Hollywood being accused of sexual assault every twenty hours since Harvey Weinstein’s demise.

Americans know who has run our country since the 1930s.  Republicans have simultaneously controlled the Senate, House, and White House only 7 years since the 1932 elections.  Generations of Democrats in power led to generations of abuse.

Hollywood has always been liberal.  In fact, it was infested with Soviet agents.  What was dismissed as John Birch paranoia was proven when the Venona Papers were released from the KGB archives.

The media was liberal, but patriotic, until the 1960s, when it took a hard left turn after the passing of leading owners and publishers.

Left wing dominance of the three sectors that run America allowed for a cesspool of moral turpitude to flourish.  Each protected each other as a code of silence was instituted.  When the perversions or crimes of one of its members was exposed the iron triangle closed ranks stating that such behavior was deplorable, but should not overshadow the person’s advocacy of issues they held dear. 

Most of the time, sexual assault, violence, and exploitation were covered-up and the American public remained ignorant to what was really happening.

In the first twenty-four hours after the assassination of John F. Kennedy, the logs of the Presidential Yacht, Sequoia, were removed and destroyed.  As a Navy vessel, the log documented everyone who boarded the ship.  The government log entries for Marilyn Monroe, Natalie Wood, and countless other Kennedy mistresses vanished.  The alteration of the yacht’s master state room, a special slotted door for crew to pass official documents to Kennedy without having to enter during his trysts, was not known until questions were asked during the restoration of the vessel.

There were always “casting couches” in all three sectors.  For decades, Capitol Hill has been notorious for aging Senators and Congressmen picking off attractive staffers, interns, and pages.  Ted Kennedy and Chris Dodd were known for making "waitress sandwiches" in the back rooms of Capitol Hill restaurants. 

In the early 1990s, the House of Representatives sank into a quagmire of sexual and financial corruption.  Conservative media exposure of the Post Office, Bank, Gift Shop, and Restaurant scandals ultimately toppled House Democrats and sent several Members to jail.  The reform team that cleaned-up the decades old mess uncovered countless abuses of power.  It became clear, given the mountains of court orders being signed by the Chief Administrative Officer, that at least a third of House Members were abusing their power to amass fortunes, fuel addictions, or pursue sexual conquests.

This is why the Republican House passed HR 1.  The bill forced the Legislative Branch to comply with all federal laws and regulations it passed.  A new Compliance Office was created to enforce the law while maintaining the Constitutional separation of powers. 

While the Chief Administrative Officer and his team established the office and procedures, other House Members quietly created a secret mechanism for settling claims of harassment, discrimination, and hostile work environments.  This mechanism was tucked up under “Member Services” within the Office of the Clerk.  It was this office that has used tax dollars to settle claims and keep Member predation under wraps.

Recently, a newly elected Democrat Senator was privately admonished by his colleagues for taking more time to find his mistress the best Capitol Hill townhouse than he did on selecting the best committee assignment.  This is a person who boasts about his family values.  This should all end

.

There are steps that need to be taken to drain the sexual swamp in which the self-styled leaders of America wallow.  First and foremost, the practice of using tax dollars to settle claims must end.  There should be no “sovereign immunity” for loutish behavior.  Voters should know what their representative is really doing.

Secondly, those who defended President Clinton during his impeachment, in Congress, in Hollywood, and the media, should never be given a credible forum to attack President Trump relating to sexual issues.  They are hypocrites and forfeited their moral high ground decades ago.

Thirdly, any candidate, of either party, should know that their personal failings will be fair game.  Projecting a loving family in campaign ads, while being an adulterer, should be considered “resume padding”.  They should be held accountable even more than someone who fakes being a veteran or a college graduate.

Holding the powerful accountable must become a major priority in rebuilding America’s civic integrity.

[Scot Faulkner advises corporations and governments on how to save billions of dollars by achieving dramatic and sustainable cost reductions while improving operational and service excellence. He served as the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He also served on the White House Staff, and as an Executive Branch Appointee.]

GSA - Bureaucrats Gone Wild

This was published in The New York Daily News

http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/gsa-top-to-bottom-gutting-article-1.1062586

What is to be done with the General Services Administration? The agency is now the “poster child” for government waste, thanks to daily disclosures of bureaucrats gone wild, topped by three days of House oversight hearings.

I know from history that this agency can be saved from rife corruption — but only if leaders attack its dysfunction root and branch.

On April 13, 1981, President Ronald Reagan did something no other President has done before or since. He directed the soon-to-be head of the GSA to either “fix the agency or shut it down” within six months. That soon to be head was Administrator-designate Gerald P. (Gerry) Carmen, a businessman from New Hampshire. Carmen had been an early supporter of Reagan, but his strong suit was being a no-nonsense owner of a network of tire and auto parts stores in New England.

What followed was something that should occur on occasion in every program, agency and cabinet department in the federal government. Carmen assembled a team of private-sector experts in operations, finance, personnel and change management and set them loose on the GSA. Their mission was his mission: design and implement a fix of GSA or shut it down.

Just like today, the GSA of 1981 was in the headlines for going rogue. For nearly two years, “60 Minutes” and an army of investigative reporters had exposed countless scandals in the government’s centralized procurement and real estate operation.

Whistleblowers, including William Clinkscales and Howard Davia, became media sensations for their exposure of GSA crimes, while Carter administration functionaries did everything they could to silence them. Clinkscales ended up working out of his car in the GSA headquarters parking lot before Reagan began mentioning him in speeches.

In the early summer of 1981, Carmen and his team quickly realized that the GSA corruption was deeply embedded and very bipartisan. Large numbers of Republicans who became career employees under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford oversaw the leasing and building kickbacks, while similar numbers of Democrats who became career employees under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter ran procurement scams.

The only way to get an honest answer from GSA careerists was to mount an “Eliot Ness”-type operation. Carmen and his team asked the whistleblowers whom they trusted, then asked those people whom they trusted and so on — until a critical mass of honest, trustworthy professionals honeycombed the agency.

As the personnel and management metrics expert on Carmen’s team, my role was to create a “war room,” filled floor to ceiling with organization charts documenting every employee in the GSA. Carmen and I spent countless days, nights and weekends combing through the mountains of reports from inspectors general, the General Accounting Office and investigative journalists and connecting them to specific programs, identifying the corrupt and incompetent, while streamlining GSA operations.

Ultimately, 48 GSA employees went to prison. Hundreds more were removed and sent packing. Streamlining some processes, and eliminating even more, shrank the agency from a bloated 34,000 employees down to 20,000 employees in less than three years. Billions of tax dollars were saved while operational integrity was rebuilt.

This fundamental cleansing of the GSA was tethered to building a new ethical culture. Carmen displayed the famous Word War II poster of the American flag with the slogan “Give it your best” throughout GSA offices. Later, my program control team wrapped real operational performance measures around all GSA activities. Employees were held accountable for failure and rewarded for results.

This resurrected, service-oriented GSA lasted until political agendas began seeping back into the agency. In 2008, President George W. Bush’s GSA administrator, Lurita Doan, resigned after being the focus of House oversight hearings over her sole-source contracts to political cronies and violations of the Hatch Act. This rot at the top of the GSA spread throughout the agency’s culture, resulting in the recent explosion of sordid tales of waste and abuse.

Still, Carmen’s GSA revolution lasted for nearly 25 years — and proves the value of mounting similar efforts in every nook and cranny of the executive branch and repeating them every 20 years, if not more often.

This is something both President Obama and Mitt Romney should promise to Americans as part of their respective platforms. Imagine what Washington would be like if SWAT teams were appointed to every agency and department with the mission to “clean it up or shut it down” within the first six months of the next administration. It would scare the living daylights out of the entrenched interests in Washington but make the federal government worthy of our tax dollars. It would also dramatically reduce costs to the point of balancing the federal budget in months instead of decades.

Faulkner served on Gerry Carmen’s GSA cleanup team.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/gsa-a-top-to-bottom-gutting-article-1.1062586#ixzz1sLndcPS8

Ethics in the 21st Century

UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO

THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

COMMENCEMENT ADDRESS BY SCOT FAULKNER

This day is about you and your loved ones, not about ceremonies or speeches.


However, in these minutes before you receive your diplomas I would like to offer a few words to help guide you into the future.

Commencements are about optimism. You are beginning your adult lives. Your futures are full of hope and opportunities.

But the world you are about to step into is still reeling from an historic meltdown.

I am not just talking about the economy.

The world is suffering from an ethical meltdown that took us over the financial cliff in the first place.

Unethical behavior and misconduct is as old as humankind, but years ago this always seemed to be balanced out by strong and moral leadership in all sectors.

Last week marked the thirtieth anniversary of Margaret Thatcher becoming Prime Minister of England. Her watershed election, followed by Ronald Reagan’s landslide in 1980, ushered in ten years where democracy triumphed, the cold war was won, and businesses prospered. This was an era of amazing moral and ethical courage displayed by Lech Walesa, Václav Havel, Pope John Paul II, and Nelson Mandela.

After the fall of the Berlin Wall, America and the world began to lose their way. The last twenty years has seen a growing trend of weaker leaders in all sectors. In America, we suffered through Presidents Bush and Clinton who were seemingly incapable of honesty and integrity. We watched as the Republicans took over Congress in 1994 promising to end the abuses of the Democrats only to create their own kleptocracy. Last year America decisively ended the Republican era hoping for a new start in a new century.

Unfortunately, the “change we can believe in” has not occurred. Examples are all around us –

• This week the Chairman of the New York Federal Reserve Bank resigned because of questionable stock manipulations.

• In the past few weeks the FBI probed deeper into the sordid business dealings of Representatives Murtha and Rangel.

• Lapses in ethics and financial disclosure knocked-out numerous Presidential appointments.

• A steady stream of Governors, Mayors, and local officials continue to be investigated, indicted, and convicted.

• Every day there are reports on how billions of dollars in TARP money is wasted or diverted.

• There are also daily reports on how, even with a different political party in charge of our government – waste, fraud, and abuse continues.

This ethical meltdown is not just in our government -

• Just this week LA Dodger Manny Ramirez was suspended because of drug use.

• All this year we watched as auto, banking, and insurance executives destroyed their companies, asked for bailouts, and then stuffed their own pockets with bonuses and perks.

• We have watched Stew Parnell, the CEO of the Peanut Company of America, knowingly allow tainted food to enter our stores and kill eight people.

• We watch as brutal dictators in the Sudan and Zimbabwe are welcomed at international conferences while their people are starved and killed.

• We have also watched as our public officials pound the table and play to the cameras, yet take no real action to either punish or prevent.

Where are today’s roles models? Are there any real leaders left?

In his budget message, President Obama stated:

“This crisis is neither the result of a normal turn of the business cycle nor an accident of history. We arrived at this point as a result of an era of profound irresponsibility that engulfed both private and public institutions from some of our largest companies’ executive suites to the seats of power in Washington, D.C. “

Thankfully, in the midst of this “profound irresponsibility” there are some who followed a better path.

There are companies that did not collapse in the financial meltdown.

These companies remain the foundation of our economy and continue giving capitalism and America a good name. They remain successful because they understand the importance of their reputation. Their sole focus, on a daily basis, is creating products people can trust.

Hershey Foods has provided the world with candy since 1903. I was lucky enough to lead a four-year consulting engagement among their seventeen plants. The aroma therapy alone was worth it.

The greatest difference between Hershey Foods and the Peanut Company of America is Hershey’s obsession with ethics. Every Hershey plant is like an echo chamber of reminders that Hershey products are consumed by children and that every Hershey employee should make candy as if they were taking it home to their own families.

The Hershey culture is one of the most positive and uplifting of any corporate culture I have ever encountered. Every employee knows that their every action builds customer trust and loyalty in their products and the Hershey brand.

Half-way around the world, workers in the city of Dubai are also making ethics a way of life. Dubai is one of the most amazing cities on earth. It is like San Francisco at the height of the gold rush. People from every nationality, culture, and religion are pouring in to make their fortunes. The cutting edge of architecture, transportation, and technology are showcased on every corner of the fastest growing city on earth.

At the heart of Dubai’s success is its reputation for safety, honesty, and security.

Dubai’s leaders know that their oil runs out in 2015 and their future depends on reinventing the city as a vibrant business and tourist destination. Dubai sits less than 100 miles from the Iranian coast. Every employee, every policeman, every customs officer, and port security guard know that just one kidnapping, one car bomb, one bribe, or one smuggled gun will erase Dubai’s reputation and end its dream.

I have spent several years advising executives in Dubai. They are focused, like laser beams, on the importance of their reputation. They know that every action is an ethical test they must pass. There is no alternative to earning trust on a daily basis.

That is what should guide our own interactions with customers and colleagues.

Think of it this way - Every one of us manages a personal reputation bank. We make deposits when we consistently meet the needs of our customers, clients, or patients. We earn interest when we collaborate with members of our practice and partner with our patients to achieve life-long health. We expand our capabilities when we recognize and value the input of everyone on our team, including administrative staff.

Our reputation bank can remain healthy and profitable for our entire lives, but only if we understand the lessons of Hershey and Dubai. At the heart of every successful organization, government, or person, is an ethical culture.

Ethics is not just something you should embrace because it is a “good thing”. For successful companies, Ethics is a business imperative.

Ethics is a competitive advantage. Ethics builds customer loyalty. Ethics helps you survive in troubled times.

Alternately, Ethical lapses break the connection with your customers and colleagues. Not honoring commitments, arbitrary actions, shoddy workmanship, all destroy the bonds of trust. Trust, once violated, is almost impossible to rebuild.

Erosion of trust then drains deposits and profits from your reputation bank.

When ethical lapses become a dominant pattern, grow harmful, or allow lying, cheating, and stealing - there will be a run on your reputation bank.

The world is littered with empty reputation banks – just look at carcasses of Enron, Lehman Brothers, and Arthur Andersen. In each case - executives thought they could game the system and outsmart reality, but reality always wins.

Violations of ethics are like twittering, texting, or posting on Facebook – you can delete, but you can’t erase. You may remove the immediate evidence, but the reality of your actions never goes away.

You, your family, and your colleagues can live an ethical life – but how do we reverse the decline in our civic culture? Power does corrupt – and every day politicians find creative new ways to line their pockets.

Twelve years ago Jefferson County, West Virginia was a very corrupt county in a very corrupt state. Most public officials earned income both above and under the table. Republicans and Democrats equally shared in graft and malfeasance.

In 1998, a small group of civic activists, including my wife and me, decided to make a difference. We first identified core values for an ethical community – the rule of law, transparency, citizen involvement, honesty, and pride in what made the community unique. We used the internet to network among caring citizens. We recruited candidates – even running want ads in the local newspapers.

Most importantly, we ran “reform” candidates regardless of party affiliation. The candidates had to pledge to build an ethical community based upon the reform movement’s core values. Liberal Democrats supported reform Republicans. Conservative Republicans supported reform Democrats.

Since 2000 this reform movement has won 41 of its 46 campaigns.

Today, the Jefferson reform movement runs the county government, the school board, and three of the five towns. Nearly half of all Jefferson County voters are linked and mobilized through email, blogs, online forums, and social networks.

Successful political reform can transcend partisanship – you just have to embrace the core values of democracy and work for change at the local level. That is where small actions can have the most impact. During your lives, think about doing something beyond yourselves by strengthening both your local community, and your professional community.

There are role models that span the political spectrum. Ronald Reagan’s motto was “It can be done”, Barack Obama’s is “Yes we can”.

After the ceremony and the parties, make a pledge to yourself to use Ethics as a moral compass to guide you through life. It will well serve you, your loved ones, your colleagues, and your patients both next week and fifty years from now.

Thank you and good luck!