Um, it's not restricted to Democrats, sorry to say. You might want to compare Julie Myers' (Gen. Myers' niece, by the way) resume to the stated qualifications for her new job as head of ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement). When even the Senate Republicans pointed out her failure to meet the minimum statutory requirements resulted in the stalling of her nomination, the President recess-appointed her. Of course, I understand that she won't need a lot of qualifications for not enforcing immigration policy, especially if the amnesty program passes, but still....a crony is a crony, whether Democrat or Republican.
Ugh! Yeah that's why they instituted a civil service system years ago -- to stop most (but not all) of these types of abuses. Unfortunately, once a person has a job under the government civil service, its next to impossible to fire him for anything less than stealing funds or assaulting a fellow worker.