President Obama: I think I hear a knock at the door....

[Junkdrawer]

Oh, look: It's Destiny:

Says you should kick out the Bush holdovers, bring in the Best and the Brightest, and use the Bully Pulpit.

Should I send her packing...again?

[sharp_stick]

1. In a lot of cases you can't

kick them out.

It's an old and very well used practice called burrowing. When a President is about to leave office especially if his party is looking like it's not going to hold onto the office a whole bunch of favored appointees are given civil service protected positions just so the incoming administration is unable to boot them out the door.

[byeya]

10. That's true and its not true. The president could give the burrowers a desk in the broom closet and

given a nothing job and still retain all pay and benefits but be out of the way.

Or, as with what happened to the Chief of the US Park Police, summarily fired and let her spend the next 5+ years trying to get her job back and when she wins, it's a whole new administration and the ones who fired her have won.

[yurbud]

15. or give their power to someone else. Didn't Kissinger take on the Sec of State duties before he got

the job?

And wasn't Colin Powell marginalized at State by Cheney and Rumsfeld?

[sharp_stick]

16. If you know who they are

This part of government is way out of my area but if I understand it correctly a lot of the more "successful" burrowed employees aren't the kind of people that made a lot of waves during the administration so they do a really good job of hiding during the transition.

[tridim]

2. Sure, but who is going to confim his nominees?

The Republicants?

[Junkdrawer]

6. I agree STRONGLY with Thom Hartmann on this point:

[byeya]

12. Confirmation? Find an intelligent and capable person already in the agency in question and

make him/her the acting Whatever.
Sure you don't get political points for appointing a big name or donor but you get the agency well run with a loyal civil servant.

[BlueCaliDem]

3. There IS no bully pulpit. I thought that would be clear to most people by now. eom

[unblock]

4. of course there's a bully pulpit.

sadly, the republicans bought it out decades ago.

[BlueCaliDem]

5. I stand corrected.

[treestar]

7. Why so people even want it

The very name says what they want to see.

[Junkdrawer]

8. Are you suggesting bully in this context means "harrasser"?

A bully pulpit is a position sufficiently conspicuous to provide an opportunity to speak out and be listened to.

This term was coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, who referred to the White House as a "bully pulpit", by which he meant a terrific platform from which to advocate an agenda. Roosevelt famously used the word bully as an adjective meaning "superb" or "wonderful", a more common usage in his time than it is today. (Another expression which survives from this era is "bully for you", synonymous with "good for you".)

Its meaning in this sense is only distantly related to the modern form of "bully", which means "harasser of the weak". The word is related to the Dutch boel, meaning lover, and is also found in the German word Nebenbuhler, meaning a rival for a lady's affection. In English usage around 1700, "bully" came to be similar to "pimp", which gives us the connotation of a ruffian or harasser.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_pulpit

[treestar]

9. Yes

given our culture's view of the world today, maybe we need to change the term.

Interesting that bully once also meant "swell" - very interesting, given the general acceptance of bullies in our society, until recently.

[Recursion]

11. Ah, the Sorkin "bully pulpit" fantasy again

If only a politician would get angry on TV, everyone would change their behavior...

[Junkdrawer]

13. Roosevelt used humor as a bigger hammer than anger....

Make people believe you're REALLY on their side and they'll tune into Fireside Chats.

Use it as a spin session to defend DINO policies and maybe his wife and kids will be regulars.

Lincoln was right: people are smarter than most politicians think. Just because we voted to keep Romney out of office doesn't mean we swallowed the speeches hook, line, and sinker.

[Tarheel_Dem]

14. Perhaps you could put this back in the "Junkdrawer"?

You, obviously, have no idea how the civil service works. Liberals blasted Karl Rove for doing what you're suggesting. Remember ?

[Junkdrawer]

17. Sent her packing and hung "No Solicitors" on the door...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014485013