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The best and the brightest according to whose standards? I understand your point, and I agree with it in principle, but in the real world things shape up differently. Under Clinton, the best and the brightest were the military politicians who would willingly abandon principle and honor to get the next promotion to enhance their resumes for even higher promotions to come. The true warriors, what the military should really be about, were shunned, castigated, demoralized and finally retreated into retirement to save their own sense of honor.

Under Clinton the best and the brightest found all kinds of ways around our laws to escape justice, to collect money for themselves, illegally expand the Democrat voter base, and finally to sell our most important secrets to the highest bidder.

With the Bush administration things are getting back in order.

I personally liked Prof. Cohen's take on the situation. He didn't seem to me to be a Democrat simply trying to expand big government. He seemed to see things as they are and to put it all into proper perspective.

Well, with the exception of Rubin at Treasury (not that I agreed with his politics, but I thought he was a very bright, very good Treasury Sec.) , I always thought all of the Clinton people were the B team. The definition of "best" doesn't change from one administration to the next-- I mean, compare the teams: Powell/Albright, Rumsfield/Cohen, Rice/Berger. If this administration can bring the same caliber of people in at lower levels, i.e., younger and less experienced, but no less bright and capable, their job will be much easier.

But, you're right, maybe I mistook this guy's meaning. I have no problem with certain branches of the federal government growing during this war as needed to fight it, but I would hate to see it become permanently larger.

I am reminded that a couple of weeks ago I read a report that in response to the anthrax problem, a few people at the Mayo Clinic invented a new field test that's really fast (takes only a day I think), rather than the 3-4 days existing tests required. I mean, they just went and did this on their own initiative, to help out. What was the CDC's response? Defensive sputtering about how they would only use a test that met the high standards of their own test. That's a second-rater's response-- this is the MAYO CLINIC, not a couple of bozos at No-name U. If I had been running the CDC, my response would have been "COOL! Let's get those guys in here and see what they've got ASAP."

I mean, if Bill Joy calls up the Feds and says, hey, I invented this little computer program that might help you guys out, you LISTEN to him!