FCW Insider: An attention-getting cartoon

By Christopher J. Dorobek

| May 27, 2008

FCW's Matthew Weigelt In announcing the formation of the caucus, he specifically mentions our cartoon. Davis said he enjoyed the Feb. 18 editorial cartoon in Federal Computer Week magazine that showed supposed members of Congress at "Tom Davis' Retirement Party" attempting to hook up a complicated device labeled "procurement policy."I wish there were many people who cared about procurement because that work is so important to getting a program right later on. And, unfortunately, there are few who care about the ins and outs of the issue.And there are a lot of procurement leaders who have left or are leaving -- Davis, OFPP Deputy Administrator Robert Burton, and Dee Lee, just to name three.

So we have a wonderful, fantastic editorial cartoonist. John Klossner lives in southeastern part of Maine and we work with him each week to get the right feel for the editorial cartoons. We try to take an unusual look at issues...and yet make a point. The saying is that a picture speaks 1,000 words. I think editorial cartoons can do the same thing -- and Klossner's cartoons often carry more than that.

Well, the editorial cartoon that went along with Federal Computer Week's Feb. 18, 2008 issue and editorial got some attention.

wrote about Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.) looking to form the "Smart Contracting Caucus."Davis' press release

"It was funny and flattering, but it's not accurate," Davis said. "There are plenty of other procurement leaders ready to take up the cause.

Unfortunately, we also have some who would sacrifice smart procurement for short-term political gain. It's time those of us who get it to do something to broaden our number and our voice."

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