At Least He’s a Patriot

In today’s New York Times comes word that Kenneth Y. Tomlinson, an old friend of Karl Rove who was booted last year from running the Corporation for Public Broadcasting with a political agenda, has run into trouble again in his current job, as the overseer of Voice of America and other government broadcasts to foreign countries. This time he is accused of putting a friend on the payroll and, more interestingly, of using his office to oversee his personal thoroughbred horse-racing operation. And most interesting of all are the names of some of his steeds: “The horses, according to track records, include Karzai, as in Hamid Karzai, and Massoud, from the late Ahmed Shah Massoud, references to Afghan leaders who have fought against the Taliban and the Russians, as well as Panjshair, the valley that was the base used by forces to overthrow the Taliban.”

The article, written by Stephen Labaton, gives a bit of detail about the performance of Tomlinson’s horses: “Records show that most of the horses have not been in the money, although Massoud appears to have been quite successful, earning purses of more than $140,000 over the last two years.”