Nice job if you can get it

How come I can never find a job like this guy? He is the director of the Department of Labor. The state pays him $108,000 a year.:

It was another short day for Buonopane, the highly paid, highly connected appointee of Governor Mitt Romney. Buonopane's work days average two hours and 51 minutes, according to Globe reporters who observed him over a series of days during February and March. On many days he does not come in at all.

Romney appointed Buonopane to the newly created job after Buonopane campaigned vigorously for him in 2002, donating generously to his campaign and helping to orchestrate an election-eve rally for Romney in the North End featuring former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

But the $108,000-a-year post has no obvious duties. Buonopane seldom comes to work for more than a few hours, and takes frequent vacations -- seven-and-a-half weeks last year, and three-and-a-half weeks in the first three months of this year.

Last week, a spokesman for Secretary of Economic Development Ranch C. Kimball, to whom Buonopane reports, could not provide a description of Buonopane's duties.

In an interview this week, Buonopane defended his work habits.

''Everything is on the up and up, and everything is accounted for,' he said. ''Any hour I get paid for, I worked for it. I don't steal from the state. Ask the governor if I'm doing my job.'

I guess if you work for an anti-labor Governor you would not be expected to do much on the Labor front. So why did he get the job? Maybe this had something to do with it:

He and his wife have been generous contributors to political campaigns, donating $14,900 to candidates for state office since 2002, including $7,000 to Romney and Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey, and $1,000 to former acting governor Jane Swift. The Buonopanes have also donated $5,950 to candidates for federal office, including $1,000 to Giuliani and $2,000 to President Bush.

That is not a bad investment. During the same period, he also gave $2,700 to Democratic candidates. In gambling terms that's called hedging your bets.

(via Fark)