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yglesias.thinkprogress.org - 11/18/2008

Burrowing

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“Burrowing” — a practice by which political appointees are transformed into career civil servants near the end of a presidential transition — is a time-honored Washington tradition, albeit not a particularly good one. And as with all bad aspects of the American ...

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Bush burrowing
Political Animal — ... of industry lobbyists in political offices throughout the government, but there's an expectation that new political appointees would replace them once there's a new president. Lots of Bushies, however, are "burrowing" -- becoming career employees, who are very hard to replace, giving them a chance to keep up their work well into the future. To be fair, Bush isn't the first president to pursue a burrowing strategy; eight years ago, Clinton was making similar moves. But as Yglesias noted , "[A]s with all bad aspects of the American political system, George W. Bush seems ...

Burrowing
Comments from Left Field — ... , but none of those other presidents had spent their entire term(s) in office stuffing every nook and cranny of their administration with ideological hacks who only needed one qualification to get the job: a willingness to put Bushian ideology ahead of every other consideration. And then there is this: ...

ThinkFast: November 19, 2008
Think Progress — ... Senate Democrats called on President Bush yesterday to “halt any effort by his administration to place political appointees in career jobs just weeks before his team leaves office.” Sens. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) sent a letter to Bush ...

Mike's Blog Roundup
Crooks and Liars — ... : The Bush administration is embedding their foot soldiers inside the government in order to sabotage any Obama initiatives while at the same time terminating federal employees who they assume would be supportive of the new administration. ...