Good Government Hall of Fame
The Good Government Hall of Fame recognizes Americans who exemplify the spirit of promoting good government. These include citizen activists, elected officials, investigative journalists and business leaders/philanthropists, military leaders and public servants.
As part of the celebration of its 25th Anniversary, POGO wanted to honor and highlight the important role each sector has in ensuring a healthy democracy and recognizes the fact that POGO alone cannot carryout its mission unless these sectors work together.
CITIZEN ACTIVISTS
Dina Rasor
Dina Rasor, founder of POGO, has devoted her career to holding the government accountable. In 1981, with just a desk and a telephone she established Project on Military Procurement (the precursor to POGO), and exposed questionable military spending practices such as the $7,600 coffee maker. Through the Pentagon “underground,” the Project exposed defense scandals that garnered national media attention, including failures in such major weapon systems as the M-1 tank, the B-1 bombeår, and the cruise missile. In 1985, Ms. Rasor was listed in the National Journal as one of 150 people who make a difference, and in 1986 was placed on Esquire’s “movers and shakers under 40” list.
Ms. Rasor authored The Pentagon Underground, and edited More Bucks, Less Bang: How the Pentagon Buys Ineffective Weapons.
She is currently running the Follow The Money Project for IAVA (Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America), which is dedicated to making sure the soldiers have the equipment they need. For more information: http://quitam.com/biodr.html and http://www.followthemoneyproject.org
Jill Lancelot
Jill Lancelot is co-founder and President of Taxpayers for Common Sense (TCS). TCS is a non-partisan budget watchdog that ensures that our government spends taxpayer money efficiently and responsibly by working to eliminate wasteful and harmful spending. For over two decades, Ms. Lancelot has been one of the most relentless and successful activists working on behalf of the American taxpayer to stop wasteful pork barrel spending, and was touted as one of the top non-profit lobbyists on Capitol Hill by The Hill newspaper in 2004. Since 1974, she has spearheaded dozens of victories that have saved American taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. Ms. Lancelot co-founded TCS in 1995 after 21 years at the National Taxpayers Union.
Her successes include termination of the $1 billion Auburn Dam in Northern California, and the elimination of the $8 billion Clinch River Breeder Reactor program. For more information: http://www.taxpayer.net/about/jill.htm
Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand
Dr. Jeffrey S. Wigand achieved national prominence in 1995 when he became the tobacco industry's highest ranking former executive to address public health and smoking issues. He made the truth known about the industry's disregard for health and safety during an interview with 60 MINUTES and during a deposition he was compelled to give in an action against the tobacco companies. His story was depicted in the major motion picture, “The Insider,” in which Dr. Wigand was played by Russell Crowe.
Dr. Wigand has received numerous awards and public recognition for his action in revealing tobacco company research and marketing practices. He continues his efforts to reduce teen tobacco use through a non-profit organization he formed, SMOKE-FREE KIDS, which conducts educational seminars with all levels of students – from elementary schools to postgraduate institutions. In addition, Dr. Wigand provides expert advice to organizations and governments such as WHO, Scotland, Canada, Holland, etc. For more information: http://www.jeffreywigand.com/insider/
JOURNALISTS
Jack Anderson
Jack Northman Anderson (October 19, 1922 – December 17, 2005) was an American newspaper columnist and is considered one of the fathers of modern investigative journalism. Mr. Anderson won the 1972 Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting for his investigation on secret American policy decision-making between the United States and Pakistan during the 1971 Indo-Pakistan War of 1971.
He was a key and often controversial figure in reporting on J. Edgar Hoover's apparent ties to the Mafia, Watergate, the John F. Kennedy assassination, the search for fugitive ex-Nazi Germany officials in South America, and the Savings and Loan scandal. He discovered a CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro, and has also been credited with breaking the Iran-Contra affair, though he has said the scoop was “spiked” because he had become too close to President Ronald Reagan. Mr. Anderson was a crusader against corruption. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Anderson
Seymour M. Hersh
Seymour M. Hersh is one of America's premier investigative reporters. In 1969, as a freelance journalist, he wrote the first account of the My Lai massacre in South Vietnam. His 2004 reports on the U.S. military's treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison shocked the world. In 2006, he reported on the U.S. military's plans for Iran, which calls for the use of nuclear weapons against that country. He has won more than a dozen major journalism prizes, including the 1970 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting and four George Polk Awards.
Mr. Hersh is also the author of six books, including The Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House, which won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the Los Angeles Times Book Award, The Target Is Destroyed: What Really Happened to Flight 007 and What America Knew About It, and The Samson Option: Israel’s Nuclear Arsenal and America’s Foreign Policy. For more information: http://www.twbookmark.com/authors/83/677/ and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Hersh
ELECTED OFFICIALS
The Honorable John Moss
John Moss, (April 13, 1915 – December 5, 1997) served in the United States House of Representatives for the state of California from 1953 to 1978. He left a legislative legacy that few since have matched. As a tireless investigator of governmental abuses and misdeeds, Representative Moss incurred the wrath of both Democratic and Republican administrations. He tangled with the White House and the federal courts over Congress' right to gain access to the nation's most sensitive secrets.
Representative Moss sought to make the government more accountable and authored the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the single most important open government law. In 1972, he won approval of legislation creating the Consumer Product Safety Commission, empowered to set safety standards for tens of thousands of household products, toys, and recreation equipment. The commission is still at work today. For more information: http://www.johnemossfoundation.org/
The Honorable William Proxmire
William Proxmire (November 11, 1915 – December 15, 2005) served in the United States Senate for the state of Wisconsin from 1957 to 1989.
Senator Proxmire used his seat on the Senate Armed Services Committee to spotlight wasteful military spending and was instrumental in stopping frequent military pork barrel projects. His Golden Fleece Award was created to focus media attention on projects he felt were self-serving and wasted taxpayer dollars.
In his last two Senate campaigns of 1976 and 1982, Senator Proxmire refused to take any campaign contributions, and spent on each less than $200 out of his own pocket – to cover the expenses related to filing for re-election and return postage for unsolicited contributions. He was an early advocate for campaign finance reform. Senator Proxmire also gave more than 3,000 speeches urging the Senate to ratify an anti-genocide treaty. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Proxmire and http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=412825
The Honorable William Roth
William Roth, (July 22, 1921 – December 13, 2003) served in the United State Senate for the state of Delaware from 1971 to 2001. He was a longtime member of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs and the Senate Committee on Finance, serving as Chairman of both. He helped to expose wasteful defense spending, drawing attention to overpriced spare parts by decorating a Christmas tree with screws, nuts, and wrenches, and a total price tag of $101,000. “It costs us $110 to buy the same parts at local hardware stores and supply houses,” Roth said at the time. Roth also oversaw high-profile inquiries into alleged taxpayer abuses by the Internal Revenue Service.
“Senator Roth leaves behind a tremendous legacy of fighting for the American taxpayer, and he will be remembered fondly by his state, country, and former colleagues,” Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said at the time of Senator Roth’s death. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Roth and http://slick.org/deathwatch/mailarchive/msg01196.html
PHILANTHROPISTS
Rockefeller Family Fund
For thirty years, the Rockefeller Family Fund has worked at the cutting edge of advocacy in such areas as environmental protection, advancing the economic rights of women, and holding public and private institutions accountable for their actions. The Fund is best known for its creative and leveraged grantmaking, its role as a catalyst in the nonprofit and the funding communities, and its record of public policy innovation.
At present, the Family Fund has five program areas: Citizen Participation and Government Accountability, Economic Justice for Women, Environment, Institutional Responsiveness, and Self-Sufficiency. Within these program areas, RFF supports advocacy programs of national significance that are likely to yield tangible public policy results. The RFF currently distributes about $2.5 million annually in grants.
Affirmative grantmaking is at the heart of Rockefeller philanthropy, and it is one of the main reasons the Fund has consistently demonstrated influence disproportionate to its size within the foundation community. For more information: http://www.rffund.org/aboutrff.cfm
MILITARY LEADERS
Colonel John R. Boyd
A fighter pilot of legendary skill, Colonel John Boyd (January 23, 1927 – March 9, 1997) helped develop the programs and tactics used by most fighter pilots today. He was responsible for the development and design of both the F-15 and the F-16. Col. Boyd also developed the concept of, and coined the term, “OODA Loop” (Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action), a concept now prevalent in both the U.S. military and American business. Col. Boyd’s mission to challenge the intractable Pentagon made enemies of some, but disciples of others. These disciples became known as “The Acolytes,” and this small band of driven men ensured that waste and fraud in the Pentagon did not go unchecked.
Col. Boyd and his ideas have been profiled in a wide array of publications including Forbes, Fortune, Time and The Economist.
He received numerous USAF awards. He was awarded the Legion of Merit four times, the Air Force Systems Command Scientific Achievement Award, and the USAF Research and Development Award. He was also awarded the Air Force Association Citation of Honor, the Arnold Society Hoyt S. Vandenburg Award, and the Dr. Harold Brown Award, all for his work in energy maneuverability, fighter design, and air-to-air tactics. For more information: http://www.belisarius.com/modern_business_strategy/hammond/essential_boyd.htm
Colonel David H. Hackworth
Colonel David H. Hackworth (November 11, 1931 – May 4, 2005) known affectionately as “Hack”, was a retired United States Army colonel and prominent military journalist. Col. Hackworth spent more than half a century on the country's hottest battlefields, first as a soldier, then as a writer, and later as a war correspondent. A reputation as one of the most highly-decorated veterans made it impossible to dismiss him when he went on the attack as a critic of careerism and incompetence in the military’s high command.
In the mid-1980s he began working as a contributing editor for Newsweek, and made regular television appearances as a critic of the military-industrial complex and the generals he called “perfumed princes.” Col. Hackworth founded Soldiers for the Truth, an organization dedicated to providing to our troops the best equipment, training, and leadership. For more information: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Hackworth and http://www.military.com/Opinions/0,,Hackworth_050505,00.html
Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan
Jack Shanahan enlisted in the U.S. Navy prior to the outbreak of World War II and retired in 1977 as a three-star Vice Admiral. In addition to the standard campaign awards, V.A. Shanahan holds the Joint Chiefs Commendation Medal (two awards), the Legion of Merit (three awards, one with the Combat V), the Distinguished Service Medal (two awards), the Navy Commendation Medal, and the Navy Combat Action Medal.
Since his retirement, he has remained active in national security issues. From 1995 to 1998, he was Director of the Center for Defense Information, a non-profit organization dedicated to strengthening security through international cooperation; reduced reliance on unilateral military power to resolve conflict; reduced reliance on nuclear weapons; a transformed and reformed military establishment; and, prudent oversight of, and spending on, defense programs. Currently, he serves as Chairman of the Military Advisory Committee to Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities. For more information: http://www.cdi.org/aboutcdi/adms.html
GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES
Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, Ph. D.
In August 2000, Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo won a landmark discrimination case in federal court against the EPA. This case served as the impetus for the introduction of the first civil rights law of the 21st century, the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-Discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 ( No FEAR). In addition to protecting victims of race and sex discrimination, the No FEAR Act also provides protection to employees who expose waste, fraud, and abuse, and holds individual agencies financially responsible in harassment suits.
Out of the “No FEAR Act,” Marsha has created the “No Fear Institute,” which is devoted to the education and defense of victims of employer discrimination in the public and private sectors. Currently, Dr. Coleman-Adebayo is a Senior Advisor in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. For more information: http://www.barnard.columbia.edu/alum/action/0602coleman_adebayo.html
A. Ernest Fitzgerald
Veteran Pentagon cost-cutter A. Ernest Fitzgerald has battled every administration from that of Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush over cost-overruns and other questionable contracting practices.
In 1969, President Richard Nixon fired Mr. Fitzgerald for his revelations of billions of dollars of waste and overruns in Lockheed's C-5A cargo plane. In fact, President Nixon can be heard on the Watergate tapes saying, “Get rid of that son-of-a-bitch Fitzgerald!” Mr. Fitzgerald successfully sued to get his job back. He is the author of The High Priests of Waste and The Pentagonists. Revelations by Mr. Fitzgerald helped prompt the late Senator William Proxmire to issue his annual "Golden Fleece" awards.
Mr. Fitzgerald worked in the Pentagon fighting waste and overruns until his retirement this year. Senator Grassley once said “To Ernie, saving the taxpayers’ money was never just a goal. It was a matter of faith to him – keeping the faith with taxpayers.” For more information: http://www.dodig.mil/IGInformation/archives/ErnieFitzgerladRetirement022806.htm and http://www.rense.com/general69/deep.htm
