Birds on the Brain

What is the sum total of Bowles’ record? What primes him for this position? He worked at Morgan Stanley and in the corporate world his entire life until the 1990s; ran the Small Business Administration for about a year under Clinton; became chief of staff from January 1997 to October 1998, during which time he tried to broker a deal on Social Security with Newt Gingrich and would have succeeded if it weren’t for the Lewinsky affair; ran unsuccessfully twice for Senate in North Carolina; and then did Bowles-Simpson. He’s never been elected, doesn’t have a whole lot in the way of accomplishments other than being a Clinton-era crony, and has throughout his public life exhibited a passion for cutting the safety net.