Regarding Bush's "opportunity to clean house" at the beginning of his administration, let's not forget how Clinton kept the new administration at bay, unable to prepare to take over the reins, as Gore made his long series of Chicago-lawyer attempts to overturn the results.
President-elect Bush easily had a month of time taken away from being able to "get [his] own people in there."
HF
I do remember that, everything from no help to stealing everything that was not nailed down out of the White House, dirtbags all of them.