8-20-2001: WASHINGTON -- In some ways the Bush administration has become a family affair, reeking of nepotism.

A staggering number of relatives of high administration officials have been appointed to government jobs, giving new meaning to "family values."

It's as if other applicants were found unqualified simply because they lacked the right last name or didn't have the right family connection.

Vice President Dick Cheney's son-in-law, Philip Perry, has been named deputy attorney general. Secretary of State Colin Powell's son, Michael Powell, is the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission. Powell was appointed to the FCC by President Clinton in 1997 and elevated to chairman earlier this year. Bush also re-appointed him to another term on the commission, until 2007.

Budget Director Mitchell Daniels' sister, Deborah, has been appointed assistant attorney general. Deputy White House press secretary Scott McClellan's brother is on the president's Council of Economic Advisers.

The brother of White House political director Ken Mehlman -- Bruce -- is an assistant secretary of commerce.

In the broader Republican family, relatives of Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia also have been picked for plum posts in the Bush administration. Janet Rehnquist is the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services, and Eugene Scalia is solicitor general at the Labor Department. He was one of Bush's attorneys when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of the then-Republican presidential candidate in the Florida election case.

Of course, the top job handouts are not limited to the White House and the high court. Capitol Hill also comes in for its share of spoils. After all, what are friends for?

We have Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina praising the selection of his son, J. Strom Thurmond Jr., as U.S. attorney for South Carolina. Thurmond described his son as "a man of character and integrity."

A Washington Post editorial noted that the younger Thurmond, out of law school for only three years, has been put in charge of a 60-person office.

Sen. Thurmond defended the appointment, arguing that "it's only nepotism when you hire your kin."

"I'm not employing Strom Jr.," he said. "I am recommending him for a position."

Bush also nominated David Bunning, the son of Sen. Jim Bunning, R-Ky. to be a federal judge for the Eastern District of Kentucky. The nominee has been serving as U.S. attorney in Eastern Kentucky for the past 10 years.

Ben A. Franklin, editor of The Washington Spectator newsletter, took note of the rush of insider appointments and wrote: "If President Clinton had done this, there would have been a congressional investigation."

Business Week magazine opined: "Dads, sons and other relatives reign so widely in this administration that there have never been so many family combos in an administration at the same time."

Webster's dictionary describes nepotism as "favoritism shown to relatives. ... especially in the appointment of desirable positions."

These appointments are not illegal. But they reveal an arrogant administration that apparently feels there is nothing strange about hiring so many sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews of government bigwigs.

Qualified or not, the appointees are riding the coattails of their families and the family name.

That seems to do a disservice to government service.

Those appointed by virtue of their relationship to other top members of the administration obviously will carry a lot of extra weight and power in any agency where they operate.

What's in a name? In this administration, I would say a lot.