Dunno if one of my fellow RT-ers reported on this yet, but even if they have, it’s worth a re-post.  Check out this muy solido Messenger Post editorial calling out the GOP Patronage Machine ™:

Hopefully, community outcry over the ugly turn taken in the search for a new Monroe Community College president is enough to allow an exhaustive, nationwide search to return to its rightful course. Unfortunately, we’ve been down this partisan political path too often with Monroe County government.
Faculty, students and potential donors are understandably upset by the strong appearance of patronage at work in selecting a candidate to replace retiring President B. Thomas Flynn.  After all, playing politics with MCC’s top job could weaken the standing of a college with more than 1,000 employees, 17,000 students and an estimated economic impact of more than $700 million.

Ya think?

Yet, that’s the road we’re going down again. In the latest display of heavy-handed politics, a majority on the MCC board of trustees — with strong ties to the GOP-controlled county Legislature — has added the names of former Republican County Legislator Bill Smith and local businessman Dennis Kessler to the list of job finalists, despite the fact that an exhaustive interview process had already eliminated them from contention.

It’s so nice to see people that can write better than me summing things up so well.  And they don’t stop there.

Even if the county GOP had not displayed a recent history of appalling arrogance, thrusting Smith and Kessler back into the ring would have raised eyebrows. But considering how Republican leaders tried ramming the so-called FAIR budget plan down the throats of Monroe County school districts (a move since struck down by a court decision) and given the tainted and closed search process for a new public defender, the political interference in MCC’s presidential selection process is only surprising in its blatantcy.

OMG. Exactly.  Friends of mine will tell you that I keep asking them, incredulously, “How can they do this so openly after all the crappy crap they’ve been pulling, that the public and the press is finally starting to actually notice?  How much must this be worth to them to risk all this continued bad publicity???”