agree - I generally reserve those type comments (bureaucrats forgetting who is the boss) for the elected people that appoint them :) Here whomever pays the most gets listened to the most. Joe Schmo doesn't have a chance. Those who disagree get silenced or get revenged. We had two water inspectors find some contaminated water in a state rep's district. He promptly had legislation passed that essentially fired them. While I like the mayor of my town a lot, he is a former "good ol' boy" who will get you if you get on the wrong side of him. We had a guy run for city council who had a ton of integrity (something missing in a lot of politicians nowadays), but he ran afoul of the mayor. An anonymous note miraculously appeared (with a lot of false accusations) on the eve of elections and the guy went from being one of the favorites to losing the election. He was pretty shaken up about that.
That's one thing I don't do is to try and play games with people. Too many like to try the underhanded approach nowadays.
There are still many good Republicans in my state, but I fear that the big government bureaucrats, who seem to relish power, are taking over.