Word: reformer
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...scolding when those notes slide - has elicited mirth, skepticism and indignation from Sarkozy's political opponents and pundits. Will Higher Education Minster Valérie Pécresse, for example, have to stand in a symbolic corner if evaluators find too few campuses have embraced her hard-fought university reform? Will French voters actually applaud Immigration and National Identity Minister Brice Hortefeux if he scores high on one of his criteria: expelling enough illegal immigrants to meet the numerical quotas that detractors decry as inhumane? Can Culture Minister Christine Abanel really be held responsible for "the evolution of visits...
...Good point. But why, then, some pundits have responded, isn't Sarkozy himself being graded in the scheme? Might an official presidential evaluation confirm accusations from his political detractors that the President's much-ballyhooed reform effort has so far produced slim results...
...Sarkozy has repeatedly said reform is as difficult as it is necessary, and because of that, he won't settle for anything but the most capable people in his cabinet in order to give himself and France the best chance of succeeding," Duhamel says. He says the idea of grading ministers was actually pushed by Fillon, despite Sarkozy's wariness it would create more tension in a cabinet already prone to division. "In the end, they realized the scheme will create pressure, but it also provides a useful for measuring reform progress and competency," says Duhamel. "That's entirely...
Without naming names, I believe that most of them would be playing the game. What motivates most politicians, especially those running for President, is closer to your classic will-to-power than to a deep desire to reform the health-care system. Alpha males are alpha males (and alpha females, ditto): it's true among apes, and it's true among humans. This doesn't make them bad people. It makes them people. It also doesn't make democracy a farce; there will always be more than enough alpha types to go around, and our right to choose among them...
...what I am saying is we have a growing list of those people. And that becomes an increasingly important function. Let's face it, from January of this year up until now, the biggest challenge I had was not do I have a 300-page Social Security reform program. If I had, would you have cared? Would you have written about it? No. Fred Thompson has got one. How many people know what it says? He spent a lot of time and money developing it. My question is: If he has got it now, how come he didn't have...