You - Yes You - Can Get Rich Without Working

While they're planning how to trim back the Smithsonian, what they can charge the public for ... we learn this:

Former Smithsonian secretary Lawrence M. Small took nearly 10 weeks of vacation a year during seven years running the vast museum complex and was absent from his job 400 workdays while earning $5.7 million on outside work, according to an independent commission report to be released today.

The Smithsonian's second-ranking official, Sheila P. Burke, was absent from her job as deputy secretary for 550 days while earning $10 million over six years on non-museum work. Report Slams Small's Tenure: Smithsonian Had 'Ill-Suited' Leader

Hmmm, I'm thinking ... Ill-suited leader ... ill-suited leader ... ill-suited leader... Why does that ring a bell?

"Mr. Small's management style -- limiting his interaction to a small number of Smithsonian senior executives and discouraging those who disagreed with him -- was a significant factor in creating the problems faced by the Smithsonian today," the report concluded. "His attitude and disposition were ill-suited to public service and to an institution that relies so heavily, as the Smithsonian does, on federal government support."

Yeah, I ride the Metro, and the tourists are back, blocking the escalators, standing in the doorways, their noisy kids swinging on the poles -- you bet they come from the Red States to see the beautiful museums.

[error removed: jk]

These past six and a half years have just been so sad.