I just finished watching the latest episode of Frontline entitled The Dark Side. As usual Frontline tells the story behind the story. I knew Cheney and Rumsfeld were close friends but did not know that Rumsfeld brought Cheney into politics. It was also interesting to learn more about Cheney’s and Rumsfeld’s early career in the Ford Administration. To say that these two are expert politicians is an understatement. Equally interesting was the outline Frontline gave showing how Cheney/Rumsfeld appointed close friends throughout the various governmental agencies and departments. These are indeed shrewd political thinkers who know how to plan.

I know the politics of it all will and should be discussed and debated. No doubt many people have strong feelings. No matter what you think though this episode is a good case study in the dynamics of large organizations. There is a great line in the episode about George Tenet where David Kay says “he [Tenet] traded integrity for access.”

It is the job of the CIA director to give an unvarnished account of the current intelligence. It seems like one of the hardest jobs in the world to constantly be asked to deliver the truth no matter what. It would seem like a no win situation. You deliver the truth long enough and no one wants to hear it so you are replaced. If you tell people what they want to hear, then you stay until things go bad.

It’s not just limited to government; I suspect the same thing went on at Enron and Worldcom, and who knows where else.

It’s a good episode, I recommend checking it out.