Obama Appointee Sobers Up, Finally Shows For Work

I don't begrudge Cindy Padilla her DWI. I don't begrudge her a Federal job. It's the back story here that really ticks me off. Imagine it were you, or anyone in the private sector. She gets appointed by Obama way back in October; three days later she gets hit with a DWI. So, does she report to work? Does she get the appointment withdrawn? Nope.

She takes all the time she needs to deal with the DWI back at home and hasn't quite yet gotten around to work. She's said to be starting in a few weeks. The crony-ism inherent in that type of accommodation reeks. No mid-level executive could expect it from a new employer, unless you work for the taxpayers. Then it's everything and anything for a friend, or someone that helped you campaign.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) -- A former New Mexico Cabinet secretary arrested for drunken driving three days after being named to an Obama administration post will assume her federal job.

Prosecutors say 48-year-old Cindy Padilla pleaded no contest to her first DWI offense in Santa Fe Municipal Court. She received a deferred sentence Nov. 19.

Padilla was secretary of New Mexico's Aging and Long-Term Services Department.

The charge resulted from an Oct. 24 traffic stop.

Three days earlier, Padilla had accepted the job of principal deputy assistant secretary at the Administration on Aging in Washington, D.C. After her arrest, Padilla asked her start date be postponed while she resolved the DWI.

A Heath and Human Services spokeswoman said Thursday Padilla will start "within a few weeks."

Comments

[xerocky]

I know it's trite but: Imagine if this were the Bush admin.

[Reaganite Republican]

This kind of crap is a cancer on the whole of our society- once personal responsibility and job performance don't hold any weight vs being an obsequious bootlick, eventually people start to give up on doing it the right way- no sense of justice is incredibly demotivating.

This is yet one more example of the terrible example Obama sets for this country- as if young people aren't already confused enough

[DaveinPhoenix]

A Heath and Human Services spokeswoman said Thursday Padilla will start "within a few weeks."

---after she gets out of a treatment facility

[archer52]

Years ago, cocaine abuse became a monster in society. Husbands left wives, mothers left their children. The difference back then was the man who left his family for his drug was ostracized and couldn't find work or community support. Soon the wave of addiction subsided because people realized they "couldn't have their cake and eat it too."

We lost that some years back and the doom it brings on our society is a slow death.

[NCBob]

When Padilla assumes her role on the Medical Services Awards Panel, she will not be dealing with ANY issues surrounding alcohol or it's abuse. Her area of expertise will be used to decide who gets hip and knee replacements in 6 Southwestern states and who does not.

[Mhmac13]

It matters not what her job will be. Where else but in the world of political patronage will a company hold a job for three months so that the person (who has never worked for the company) can go to her job. If the job could live without a person in it for three months, perhaps the job is not all that important.

[Mhmac13]

PS The thought of this person deciding any thing about some one else's health care is REAALLY scary.

[Paul A'Barge]

"http://www.nmseniorolympics.org/images/NMSO%20stuff%20273_600.jpg"

that's Cindy on the left.

"http://www.nmpolitics.net/index/2009/11/former-state-official%E2%80%99s-federal-job-in-question-after-dwi-arrest/"

More with another picture of Cindy.

[RebeccaH]

The country is in the very best of hands.

Not.

[KingTaco]

"principal deputy assistant secretary"

Seriously........."principal deputy assistant secretary"

The fact that the Federal Government has positions that can't even bother to hide that they they are basically 'make-work' patronage is more of a scandal than who's filling them. I don't think PJ O'Rourke could do a better job with a parody position name. I'm keeping my finger crossed that I land that Senior Executive Associate Administrator job with the Dept. of Basket-Weaving Study and Regulation.

[Estragon]

Best wishes to the stupid, drunken whore! She certainly represents the typical Obama supporter well.

This is just who we want deciding whether Grandma gets her hip replacement or just a bottle of painkillers and a pat on the rump, isn't it?

[thetaxman]

"When Padilla assumes her role on the Medical Services Awards Panel, she will not be dealing with ANY issues surrounding alcohol or it's abuse. Her area of expertise will be used to decide who gets hip and knee replacements in 6 Southwestern states and who does not."

Boy that makes me feel a lot better.

[smoothjim]

Any Mike Brown witchfinders want to chime in here?

[seekeronos]

I guess the new metric for getting a senior level federal appointment is the inverse of the expected level of competence and/or moral qualification for the job:

Tim Geithner, head of US Treaury (and by association, the IRS) : Tax Cheat.

Kevin Jennings, Safe Schools Czar: purveyor of smut and NAMBLA supporter, radical homosexualist/sodomite, former urban terrorist (ACT-UP, a sodomite terror group known for its disruption and aggressive direct action tactics to supposedly gain increased HIV research funding in the late 1980s - early 1990s),

Cindi Padilla, Medical Services Awards Panel: drunk and a DWI convict

Do we have a pattern of corruption thoroughly welded with ultra-partisanship, socialist cronyism, and just plain evil yet...?

[eaglewingz08]

I think we should applaud this appointee for not showing up for work. Imagine the damage that would be avoided if 90 percent of Obama's socialist workforce took the next three years off.

[alanstorm]

Judging by her background, and looking at this administration's other choices, she should really transfer to the NHTSA.

[PJ]

Your tax dollars at work, for a political-patronage make-work bull$hit position. I wish that Republicans' efforts to starve the beast hadn't been met by Democrats (and Republicans') efforts to feed the damn beast anyway with borrowed $.

[Toads]

The real story here is that women don't want to take responsibility for their behavior, yet are given six-figure bullshit jobs in the public sector.

Meanwhile, the mancession rages on. 12% of men are unemployed. 8 million guns have been bought in the last 12 months. What could go wrong?

[Kev]

"principal deputy assistant secretary"

Seriously........."principal deputy assistant secretary"

This may have originated in the bureaucracy that runs the public schools, where they have titles like Deputy Associate Vice Superintendent for Curriculum Development in the Northwest Quadrant (I fear I'm only slightly exaggerating here), although I'm not sure which is the chicken and which is the egg in this case.

Reading about people like this being gainfully employed using our tax money should remind us that it's time to grow the productive class, at the expense of the unproductive and parasite classes. Term limits for all, including (especially) bureaucrats....and throw the crooks like Geithner in prison where they belong.