Turns out that “kiss-up, kick down” guys such as John Bolton are popular with those they have kissed up to.
John Bolton, we have heard, is “a ‘kiss-up, kick-down’ sort of guy.” In today’s New York Times, two of the people who were in position to be kissed up to by him — James Baker and Ed Meese — say that, as far as they know, he’s a splendid fellow, who “knew his place” and “took direction.”
Why am I not reassured?
In the meantime, is Lugar really willing to force a committee vote before we learn whether Bolton violated about seventy-‘leven laws by using the National Security Agency to run wiretaps on his bureaucratic rivals?
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
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