Administration Moves to Protect Key Appointees

[FreeStateDemocrat]

Source: Washington Post


Political Positions Shifted To Career Civil Service Jobs

By Juliet Eilperin and Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, November 18, 2008; Page A01

Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior civil service posts.

The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs.

Similar efforts are taking place at other agencies. Two political hires at the Labor Department have already secured career posts there, and one at the Department of Housing and Urban Development is trying to make the switch.

Between March 1 and Nov. 3, according to the federal Office of Personnel Management, the Bush administration allowed 20 political appointees to become career civil servants. Six political appointees to the Senior Executive Service, the government's most prestigious and highly paid employees, have received approval to take career jobs at the same level. Fourteen other political, or "Schedule C," appointees have also been approved to take career jobs. One candidate was turned down by OPM and two were withdrawn by the submitting agency


Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

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These corrupt bastards will not be leaving after all. Their evil influence will continue by attempting to undermine the Obama administration from within.

[ixion]

1. this is one of the huge problems with a bureaucratic model

you can't really eliminate ideological extremists like the neocons with a simple purge, because they simply scatter for the nooks and crannies of the bureaucracy. This is also why the Bush cabal has increased the size and the opaqueness of the monster that is our government.

And since Obama is looking quite ready to play along, there won't be much of a purge.

So we're stuck with the neocon reality -- to a greater or lesser degree -- for the foreseeable future, which really sucks.

[ret5hd]

3. what model do you suggest?

[ixion]

5. one where "burrowing" would not be possible...

although I'm not sure if there is (or could ever be) such a entity.

I don't think any position of power in government should be 'safe', and actually -- ideally -- government positions would not be "powerful", as such.

Civil service should not be glamorous or powerful or profitable. It should be more like jury duty: something we do to facilitate the common infrastructure. It should not be a career path.

While I don't think it's feasibly possible to eliminate the bureaucratic construct, I think there are things we can change that will make it less attractive to extremist zealots.

[fasttense]

2. It is call burrowing, as in to dig down and burrow.

A controversial move for political appointees to take career civil service jobs in the hope that they don't lose their job when the next administration takes over. In political appointee jobs they would very likely be replaced, but in civil service jobs, they are protected by labor regulations. This is common practice but in the bush administration it can be deadly because he appointed so many cronies and inept or incompetent people.

But, real career civil service employees tend to keep lists of the borrowers and are known to turn the lists over to the new administration, especially if the once political appointee is disliked and incompetent.

A common civil service rule is that new hires are on a 1 year probation period. In that time, the employee can be fired for just about any cause.

[pnorman]

4. In another DU discussion on this topic, it had been noted that Clinton had done the very same thing!

That was news to me, and I must admit that my jaw dropped a few inches when I saw that. Does anyone here know how that worked out for those "Clinton burrowers"?

That also illustrates why this Board MUST be open to the WIDEST dissemination of Free Speech possible! I CRINGE every time I hear the words: "Freeper Alert!" or "Tombstone, Yummy"

pnorman

[Divernan]

6. Bush turned the Fed. govt. into a job service for GOP's worthless "trust fund babies"

This is merely the tip of an eight year iceberg. From the getgo, the Bush administration has been "salting", so to speak, federal agencies with the incompetent, otherwise barely employable children, grandchildren, friends-of-friends' kids of GOP political donors/operatives. I'm referring to putting people in their twenties, with no management experience, no MBA, and no relevant substantive experience, into mid-level/management civil service jobs. And to add insult to injury, these largely worthless political hires are then rewarded with quite large annual bonuses - to allegedly make up the difference with what they'd earn in the private sector. Ya know, it was such a sacrifice for them to pass up high paying jobs in the private sector to do some public service work. Frankly, I doubt that Wendy's or Target gives their managers $40,000 annual bonuses, and these political hires would be lucky to get those jobs, without their daddys' connections. Meanwhile the non-politically appointed/career civil servants do get bonuses also - of several hundred dollars.

While every administration names political appointees to the top couple of levels of federal agency bureaucracies, and may try to protect a few of the top level appointees by moving them into civil service slots, Bush has greatly expanded turning the federal government into a job service for GOP brats, throughout his 8 years by adding political "hires" to political "appointees".

[tclambert]

7. Are they converting the positions from appointed to career, or are they transferring the Bush

appointees to existing career positions? You said, " {This} at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs." That would imply they are changing the status of the positions. If they are transferring, Obama can still fill all the appointed positions as he wants, but may not be able to hire people he wants for career positions, until they are vacated. I would hope that's the case, and the former appointees will at least have their authority cut. But the real career employees have to watch out. If the political tides sweep a Republican into the White House again any time soon, the Bush burrowers may be elevated to top appointed positions.

I thought in civil service you had to pass exams for virtually any hired position. And that was put in place to combat cronyism and nepotism.

[Moderator]

8. Locking.. Exact duplicate found here...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...