Interesting. If he is CEO of DIA, then he reasonably has the right background to run the FAA. I agree he should have done his homework for what amounts to a job interview, but still he's not a completely ridiculous candidate.
His background is fairly prestigious. He reached the rank of Command Sergeant Major in the Army, which is the highest enlisted rank. He retired out of the Army in 1999, so that was well before the current political correctness. One assumes there must have been at least some affirmative action applied in promoting him, but he must have had some level of real ability.
Likewise, his current job as CEO of DIA follows several previous administrative roles in the transportation field, so he does at least have a career in this field. One interesting point is that Washington became CEO at DIA after the previous CEO left under somewhat of a cloud. DIA is undergoing a big remodeling job that ran way over budget, to the point where the contractor was fired, and they had to go back to the drawing board to revise the plans and issue a new contract to straighten things out. Washington was the guy hired to oversee this process. Even if he is a diversity hire, I would think they would have done their best to find someone who wouldn't screw things up again.
That being said, he has almost certainly gotten all his promotions not because he was the best, but because he was black and still had some passible level of talent. It's like the way nearly every big city seems to have a black female Chief of Police now. It's not because they were the best candidate. It's all DEI hiring.
