First, Mitch was Director (architect)director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). He served as Director from January 2001 through June 2003. In this role he was also a member of the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council.

Daniels came under fire for overseeing a $236 billion annual surplus turn into a $400 billion deficit during his 29-month tenure.

In 2002, Daniels helped discredit a report by Assistant to the President on Economic Policy Lawrence B. Lindsey estimating the cost of the Iraq War at between $100–$200 billion. Daniels called this estimate “very, very high” and stated that the costs would be between $50–$60 billion.

Mitch left us in a mess.

But this is only the beginning. Mitch was also the President of the Hudson Institute, a conservative thinktank based in Indianapolis, from from 1987 to 1990. Since that time, Hudson, due to financial reasons, closed their headquarters in Indianapolis and currently downsized their operation to the DC area. Mitch left a mess.

Then there was the IPL issue. In January 2001, upon his appointment as Director of federal Office of Management and Budget, Daniels resigned as a member of the board of Indianapolis Power & Light Co. and sold the $1.45 million he held in company stock. Later, that year, Indianapolis Power & Light Co. was bought by Virginia-based AES Corp. Daniels was a member of the IPALCO board of directors at the time of the transaction in early 2001. Just before the sale was completed, Daniels sold his shares in IPALCO for $1.45 million.
Over the course of the next year, IPALCO shares plummeted from nearly $50 a share to under $1. Employees lost an estimated $179 million in the devaluation of the 401(k)-styled “Thrift Plan” that the employees were encouraged to invest in. Once again, Daniels left a mess.

Then there is Lilly. From 1993 until 1997, Daniels was President of North American operations, and promoted to Senior Vice President for Corporate Strategy and Policy at Eli Lilly in 1997 where he served until leaving the company in 2001. During that time, Daniels carved $1.5 billion tax credit for Lilly if Lilly could/would hire 2000. Lilly this week stated that they would be cutting 5,000jobs (http://www.indystar.com/article/20090920/BUSINE...)
Mitch left a mess.

Then there is Govenor Mitch. First, he sold the toll roads (in order to balance the state budget) to a private Australian-Spanish (buy American) for $3.8 billion. It appears that the company has filed for Chapter 11/7/13.
Additionally, a state youth program that serves 5,000+ youth in Indianapolis known as Youth Emergency Services, will be closing there doors along with 40 employees due to the fact that there was no funding in the amount of $1.5 million. Then there is the property tax fiasco. Mitch imposed property tax caps which has resulted in a drastic reduction in public school education funding. So much in fact, most schools are slashing teaching positions, afterschool programs and school renovations. In the meantime, several school districts have filed suit against the state. Have we mentioned the Capital Improvement Board?? Mitch has failed to fund roughly $33 million for operations of Lucas Oil Stadium/Convention Center/Conseco Fieldhouse after taking the lead in the funding. He even refuses efforts to fund it specifically, casinos in Indianapolis. Once again, Mitch left a mess.

What is “pigeon”-style managment? Flies into a job on the recommendation of someone who is trying to get rid of him, “poops” all over everything in sight, adds more fluff to their résumé (like, oh say, “I saved the company $20K by changing coffee vendors -to one run by a pal of mine, who uses inferior coffee, after all, it's just for the hourly employees), then flies off to repeat the process again, [i]ad nauseum[/i].