[Defiant]

The question I have is, why was Bush so ineffective at fighting back against openly insubordinate government workers? That story about the lady who told people not to follow this administration's policies would get back to the White House. Why wasn't she fired immediately? Why didn't he go through and get rid of everyone he could legally fire, and replace them with good conservatives? Why did he take the side of Negroponte and not Goss? Why, why, why????

The related story is the management failures of the Bush Administration, starting from day 1 with the US attorneys and Norm Mineta at transportation, and continuing to the present day with this NIE estimate. He should be calling out the authors and saying that the CIA can no longer be trusted because it has become a captive of the Democrat party, but he feels constrained to fight back. That's what he should have been doing all along.

[Bommer]

The question I have is, why was Bush so ineffective at fighting back against openly insubordinate government workers? That story about the lady who told people not to follow this administration's policies would get back to the White House. Why wasn't she fired immediately? Why didn't he go through and get rid of everyone he could legally fire, and replace them with good conservatives? Why did he take the side of Negroponte and not Goss? Why, why, why????

Because can't fire them based on political beliefs.