Republicans should just get over it about Brown
Republicans in the General Assembly who thought they had heard the last of Marcus Brown got a rude awakening.
As you might recall, Brown was the man first tapped by Gov. Tom Wolf as his state police commissioner, but the nomination was rejected in the GOP-controlled state Senate.
It seemed that Brown’s most egregious shortcoming, in the eyes of the opposition, was his decision, while serving as commissioner in an acting capacity as he awaited Senate action, to wear the Pennsylvania State Police uniform. That caused some retired state troopers to get their knickers in quite a twist. They don’t think anyone who has not gone through the Pennsylvania state police academy and come up through the ranks in Pennsylvania should wear the uniform. Brown is from Maryland. He’s an “outsider.” Brown also was taken to task for removing critical signs that were planted in his neighborhood, again by someone worked up over the uniform issue.
When Brown’s nomination went down to defeat and Wolf picked a new nominee, Republicans no doubt thought they’d soon be rid of this interloper.
Surprise! Wolf has turned around and named Brown as director of the state’s Office of Homeland Security. And, what do you know, that position doesn’t require approval by state lawmakers.
The Republican response was predictable.
“The position of director of the Office of Homeland Security should not be used as a political gift,” Megan Sweeney, spokeswoman for the Republican Party of Pennsylvania, said in a report on the Patriot-News newspaper’s PennLive site. “It seems Gov. Wolf is focusing more on political one-upmanship than addressing the serious questions that were raised about Marcus Brown’s past actions during the confirmation process.”
Senate Majority Caucus spokeswoman Jennifer Kocher also chimed in for the PennLive report, saying Wolf’s decision “speaks volumes about the governor’s attitude toward the Legislature. It’s an attitude that spills over in his approach to working with the members of the General Assembly during the ongoing budget negotiations.”
Sure, there’s a bit of the old “thumb in the eye” to Wolf’s appointment, but it’s not as if the governor has picked some old college pal or political crony with no relevant experience to run the homeland security office. Brown has been involved in a variety of law enforcement posts for a quarter century.
“The first time Governor Wolf met (Brown) was in December when he interviewed him to lead the Pennsylvania State Police, a job he was selected for based on his unmatched experience and qualifications,” Wolf spokesman Jeff Sheridan told PennLive. “To suggest cronyism is at play in the governor’s decision to make him director of the Office of Homeland Security – a position he is uniquely qualified to hold – is one of the more petty and foolish attacks Republicans have waged, but their absurdity is not surprising.”
The bottom line is that the appointment is the governor’s to make, and unless he were to select someone clearly unfit for the job, the Republicans really don’t have a legitimate argument to make.
The other takeaway here is that we shouldn’t expect a state budget anytime soon.