Bushies to Remain in Government

[davidswanson]

Not only is President Elect Obama talking about keeping on key Bushies like Robert Gates.

Not only is Bush transforming appointees into career civil servants, in order to prevent Obama from bringing in new people. (Read the WaPo story.)

But -- and this has not, as far as I know, yet been reported -- Bush is firing dozens of employees in various departments who have been whistleblowers or are known to lean left politically, and replacing them with loyal Bushies. Or so I'm told by a very good source. More info coming soon.

[spanone]

1. k&r

[Gin]

3. do these new "employees" have a 90 day probation period like

other civil service employees? if so, I say fire them.

The probation period was there when I was a civil servant years ago...not sure it is still in effect.

[nykym]

2. I would imagine most of them could be

put in charge of counting paper clips, ordering water cooler supplies, constant performance reviews, rejected proposals that need to be rewritten dozens of times then lost, etc etc - just make work for them very unappealing until they leave.

[sellitman]

4. This is his idea of an orderly transition?

Figures

[bdamomma]

5. this is very troubling.

you don't think these people (bushies) who hold these positions will not be weaned out of the government for new Obama staff.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

6. Not that I have proof, but I think Papa Bush did the same thing.

[Hangingon]

10. See the WaPo story

This is not new. Clinton did the same thing and it goes back a long way before him. As a career employee, I am saddened to see the politization reach so deep in the ranks. Under Reagan it reached senior career ranks in the regions.

[Burma Jones]

7. Not Unusual

It will take six months or so to neuter these burrowers......

It's pretty amazing what you can do with restructuring.

[mulsh]

8. Would it be difficult for department heads to reassign these

bushies to relatively harmless and powerless positions? Or at least block any actions these people try. We're not talking about secretary of even assistant secretary positions here. just wondering. and praying for a thorough purge.

[napi21]

9. It seems "career Civil Servants" CAN be fired!

The Fallen Legion
Casualties of the Bush Administration
By Nick Turse

In late August 2005, after twenty years of service in the field of military procurement, Bunnatine ("Bunny") Greenhouse, the top official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in charge of awarding government contracts for the reconstruction of Iraq, was demoted. For years, Greenhouse received stellar evaluations from superiors -- until she raised objections about secret, no-bid contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown & Root (KBR) -- a subsidiary of Halliburton, the mega-corporation Vice President Dick Cheney once presided over. After telling congress that one Halliburton deal was "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career," she was reassigned from "the elite Senior Executive Service... to a lesser job in the civil works division of the corps."

When Greenhouse was busted down, she became just another of the casualties of the Bush administration -- not the countless (or rather uncounted) Iraqis, or the ever-growing list of American troops, killed, maimed, or mutilated in the administration's war of convenience-- but the seemingly endless and ever-growing list of beleaguered administrators, managers, and career civil servants who quit their posts in protest or were defamed, threatened, fired, forced out, demoted, or driven to retire by Bush administration strong-arming. Often, this has been due to revulsion at the President's policies -- from the invasion of Iraq and negotiations with North Korea to the flattening of FEMA and the slashing of environmental standards -- which these women and men found to be beyond the pale.

Since almost the day he assumed power, George W. Bush has left a trail of broken careers in his wake. Below is a listing of but a handful of the most familiar names on the rolls of the fallen:

http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/28817/nick_turse_casualties_of_the_bush_administration

The article is the second one down that page.

Were all those "career civil servants" who were fired or forced out by Shrub just another example of him ignoring the law? Apparently, at lease in the Shrub admin. "career" doesn't mean anything!

[kentuck]

11. Not surprised...

This has been his MO since a child.

[The Backlash Cometh]

12. Well, we know he can't fire civil servants, so he may not get a clean

sweep with those whistleblowers.

[asteroid2003QQ47]

13. re: Bushies. Sack the lot of them!

One of these

a giant gunny sack and several bricks should do the trick.
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My my my I'm once bitten twice shy baby

My my my I'm once bitten twice shy

My my my I'm once bitten twice shy baby