And Joe Enge, you're doing a heckuva job

Thanks to Myrna at Reno and Its Discontents for wonderfully dissecting, framing and hanging on the wall the utterly offensive development wherein Gov. Pervus A. McSkanktard has appointed an incompetent conservative hack from an overfunded but mostly inconsequential arm of the local wingnut industrial complex to a state job for which the aforementioned hack is blatantly unqualified.

We called the guvment to ask just how much taxpayers were shovelling out to have Joe Enge, the momentarily famous but ultimately ousted Carson City high school history teacher-turned-right-wing-foot soldier, as the Deputy Director of Nevada State Office of Energy within the Governor's office. Much to our surprise, Enge himself answered the phone.

After first explaining that he wasn't quite sure how much he was getting paid, and then noting to himself (thinking out loud as it were) that his salary is public record, he said "I'm thinking it's $63,000."

Having identified ourselves from the start as "a hostile blogger" (hey, we may not be balanced but we're fair), we also asked Enge just what it was in his background that qualifies him for a $63,000 taxpayer-funded energy policy job.

He assured us that he has worked on "a lot of policy stuff." Asked if any of that policy stuff had anything to do with energy, Enge acknowledged that his research and columns have mostly been about education. He then waxed about the magical ways that public policy issues interconnect, at one point explaining that "energy relates to national security."

So to recap: If Joe Enge can't be deputy director of the governor's energy office for $63,000 a year at public expense, then the terrorists have won.

Enge also noted that he will be well served by his "communications skills."

If by "policy stuff" Enge means throwing the same tired shallow ideological right-wing rhetoric at energy on behalf of the state as he's been throwing at education on behalf of NPRI or that he swills around on his blog, where he writes nearly exclusively on education, then Enge is definitely right and his skill-set applies to one issue just as effectively as to the other. Which is to say not for shit. But still...

And given the right-wing bumper sticker brand of governing, or non-governing as the case may be, practiced by the nation's worst governor, knowing something or anything about an actual issue surely must be the last prerequisite to landing a McScurve appointment, and certainly a much less important consideration than professing unquestioning belief in the right brand of ideological magic bullets.

So while there are any number of people right here in Nevada who not only have fine communications skills but also expertise that might come in handy in helping the state, oh, enhance conservation efforts and consumer and environmental protections while fostering a transition to alternative fuels and renewable energy sources as a means of diversifying Nevada's economy and securing an overall sane energy policy ... well, such a person assuredly is not what the assclown in the governor's office was looking for.

Instead, he might have been looking for an ideological yes man. In which case, he found one. Or more likely, he was just looking to repay a favor to somebody by finding a well-paying job with no inbox for an erstwhile marginally employed wingnut on the scene.

From Brownie to Halliburton to Abramoff to Bush's layabout brother to flooding early post-war Iraq with college Republicans and all the rest of the crony capitalism that has characterized their corrupt excuse for a political party in recent years, even McSkanktard's fellow Nevada Republicans should be complaining about giving some blatantly undeserving ideological foot soldier a lucrative state sinecure on the taxpayers' dime. Of course, then they'd have to 1) actually believe all that high-blown rhetoric about spending taxpayers money wisely and 2) have some sense of shame.

In the absence of either, Joe Enge gets a sweetheart deal.

Comments

[PervWatch]

Enge is certainly qualified for this position - he has even appeared on the Heidi Harris show! What a crack bunch of lemmings the rightwing Republicans have become.

Daily, Gov. Gobbins (from his January letterhead) displays what his priorities are and they are not the welfare of Nevada citizens. He wants budgets cut by 8% while GIFTING a position of pay to Enge and many others.

Hey, how about Gov Gobbins take an 8% pay cut, his wife and he should also give up 8% of the kickbacks and contracts they have allegedly received in the past 10 years. That alone would probably help the state budget. Oh, other measures suggested: he could pawn some of that gangland bling he wore for the photo op; sell the HUGE RV and add that back into the state budget; pawn Dawn's inaugural gown, ETC.

[What?!]

EXACTLY!!
This is another demonstration of shit selection in croynism government employement (and I thought these people HATED government, and yet given an opportunity, they'll suck the teat right off!). How does anyone take Gibbons seriously?!

Hugh, you left out the last sentence of Myrna's post, the one about how Joe Enge (joe anger) just a month ago got a ticket for a hit and run accident! Is it me, or does the governor seem to appoint people who, by themselves or thier prior employer have ties to the phrase "criminal investigation"?
engehitandrun

(reno gazzette journal october 31, 2007)

[nvblogger]

So what -- Cheney's on his last leg!!

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21979310/

Chaney's still alive?

[CybScryb]

Aren't Joe and several of the guvner's other appointees better known as sinecures? Or as we call them out the hustings, "low hanging fruit for the journalists"?

[kickboxermomma]

So this is the incompetent I have to thank for the fast tracking of coal plants. While everyone else is abandoning this energy source of course Governor Gee I'm Stupid embraces it with whoreish fervor. We have no coal, we have no abundance of water so of course coal plants would be ideal for Nevada.

Damn the cost, health concerns, environmental impact and the fact that we could lead the nation on alternative energy sources-hydrothermal, wind, solar. No, once again we must be stuck with sweetheart deals and incompetency.

From The Nevada Appeal-

Could it havbe involved footsie in the men's room?

F.T. Norton
Appeal Staff Writer,
September 25, 2007, 4:01 AM

Carson City School Board member Joe Enge reported to police Sunday that he was assaulted by a stranger at a casino nightclub.

Enge, 44, filed the report about 1:30 p.m., some 12 hours after the 1 a.m. incident outside the Club Vu at the Carson City Nugget.

"I went to the restroom and three young guys come in. The guy in the lead knows exactly who I am. He's coming right at me, very belligerent, it was very clear this guy hates my guts and he pegged me and knocked me down," said Enge on Monday.

Enge said the man hit him more than once, then the group left the bathroom.

"And I just went back to my wife, and just kind of blew it off," he said.

Enge said that a short time later the same guy came up to him as he sat with his wife and challenged him again, making "derogatory" statements. Enge said he was unable to recall what the man said.

"It just happened so quick, I knew whoever it was knew who I was," he said.

The man was eventually told to leave the casino, Enge said.

He said this is the second time he has been assaulted by someone he didn't know and it makes him wonder about the motivation.

Enge is a controversial character in Carson City education. In 2005, after the history teacher and author was let go from Carson High School for unsatisfactory classroom evaluations, Enge fired back that he was being singled out because he disobeyed orders to stop teaching history before 1865. The battle made national headlines.

In the last election, Enge surprised many people when he won a school board seat.

Since he's been in that position, he's filed two complaints of open meeting law violations.

Enge also writes articles as an education analyst for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, that often bring about ire.

"I'm a hundred percent sure it's related to who I am. But is it something I wrote, is it something on the school board?" he asked.

Anyone with information on the Saturday assault is asked to call the Carson City Sheriff's Department non-emergency dispatch number at 887-2007.

...so what happened to Raj Mehta, Ph.D who WAS the Deputy Director over in Energy?

What does Ph.D have to do with being a deputy anyway?!

How about paygrade 40?

[KidFromVegas]

GOP...Getting Ourselves Paid

[Johnathan L. Abbinett]

Good one "KFV" - How about this one: GOP...Greed Over People!

Joe Enge has been a regular fixture in the Legislature, lobbying on education issues. Yesterday, the Gov's press secretary acknowledged his lack of experience on energy issues and said that he was hired for his legislative abilities. Interestingly, Enge appears never to have registered as a lobbyist in Nevada, at least in the past 2 sessions, perhaps hiding behind the title "Education Policy Analyst" for the aforementioned non-profit 501 (c)(3) NRPI.

[Michael Green]

Wow! A right-winger fudging the truth and the law. Shocking.

[What?!]

Today's (11.27.07), SUN article (Cooligan/"from the suns blog") reports that;
"Office of Energy Director Hatice Gecol said the hiring freeze didn't apply to Enge because the offer was made by the state and Enge accepted before the moratorium was put in place."

REALLY? Enge was hired November 12, 2007. Yet, the newly created "Justification to Fill" form (see budget.state.nv.us), is dated November 8, 2007. Gibbons' October 22, 2007 Press Release "ask[s] for state agencies to prepare for a hiring freeze." So it appears Enge was hired AFTER the hiring freeze. Please release the COMPLETED "Justification to Fill" form for Joe Enge to the press.

The article also reports that Gecol said
"I believe he will make a good manager and I am excited to have him onboard."

REALLY?! According to the Nevada Legislative Council Bureau, Budget Account Detail, page 61, budget account 101-4868, there are 5 employees aside from the Gecol and Enge!! There is the Associate Engineer; the Accountant and three (3) Grant/Project Analysts. Five employees is well within the recognized "span of control" of any one supervisor (Gecol herself would suffice as the department's lone supervisor; as it is, there are two superviors for 7 total positions, and the Executive Budget 2007 recommends only 5 employees!; one position, administrative assistant is vacant per the Energy Office website).

Clearly this is not management efficiency, and it sure as heck falls WAY short of the Governor's October 22, 2007 declaration that,
"Just as families and businesses are tightening their belts, government needs to do the same."

So, what's the real deal, Stan?

According to the budget, Enge's salary is $63,648 (plus benefits) and then goes up in 2008 to $70,825. Not bad for a guy without credentials whose Department exists "Implement the Governor's Nevada Energy Protection Plan by seeking to ensure a reliable and affordable energy supply for Nevada." Then again, maybe his work with the Nevada Policy Research Institute has given him a strong background in HOT AIR.

[Sam Dehne]

Where's the FBI?

$#^&^^%$#@!$#%&*%^$#@ $#&^&*!@%$&*^^&^%#%%

[nvblogger]

Maybe Gibbons is trying to show that he's now sympathetic toward assualt victims.

[What?!]

Hey Kids!, hiring freeze went into effect October 18, 2007! That's a full month before Enge was hired! Take a look at memo 48-07 below!

nevadadepartmentpersonel