From the Dept. of Totally Unsurprising Things

In the proud tradition of Michael Brown and George Deutsch (She gave us the ax: N.Y. terror money was cut by woman from the sticks http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/422998p-356987c.html)
meet Tracy Henke:

The Homeland Security official who signed off on funding cuts for New York and extra cash for the heartland is a small-town gal whose back-door appointment to the job was mired in controversy. You can see where this is going, can’t you? Tracy Henke, 37, assistant secretary for grants and training, wasn’t quickly confirmed by the U.S. Senate after her nomination last year because of allegations she played politics in her previous post.

So an impatient White House appointed her while Congress was in recess, drawing howls of outrage from lawmakers and sparking questions about her qualifications. Being qualified for your job is *so* pre-9/11. The only thing that matters post-DayThatChangedEverything is loyalty to the executive codpiece. After six months on the job, Henke is already on President Bush’s radar screen - he thanked her by name yesterday for help on immigration reform, even as her anti-terrorism funding handiwork was being pilloried.

“Henke-y, you’re doin’ a heckuva job.” Another Missouri native, former Attorney General John Ashcroft, brought Henke to the Department of Justice, where she oversaw a grant program and the Office of Domestic Preparedness. At Justice, she caused an uproar when she demanded changes to a press release about a study that found minorities were more likely to be arrested or handcuffed during traffic stops.

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