Ordinarily, I would agree that President Obama has too many other important things on his desk right now to spend time finding someone to head the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. True, Rocco Landesman exited the NEA late last year, and Jim Leach left the NEH months ago, but there is the little matter of health care, not to mention Syria, Iran, etc. that the President has to deal with.
However, I sat up and took notice in late September, when the White House sent me notice of these “key administration posts”:
- Frank F. Islam – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
- Amalia Perea Mahoney – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
- Shonda L. Rhimes – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
- David M. Rubenstein – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
- Alexandra C. Stanton – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
- Walter F. Ulloa – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
And it happened again today, when I receive more news of “key administration posts”:
- Stephanie Cutter – Member, President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
- Caroline “Kim†Taylor – Member, President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities
- Margaret Russell – General Trustee, Board of Trustees of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts
The Kennedy Center is worthy of attention but, you know, it already has a heck of a lot of trustees. These are simply political appointments – rewards of some political sort.
Meanwhile, the Endowments are being lead by Joan Shigekawa, Senior Deputy Chairman of the NEA, and Carole M. Watson, Acting Chairman of the NEH. No “acting,” “senior deputy” or “interim” has real clout with Congress.
For a man who was supposed to be an arts backer, President Obama has been disappointing from the outset — and it only continues.