The fog at Foggy Bottom (State Dept employees contempt for Bush)

Washington Times ^ | 5/21/03 | Op Ed

[Mark Felton]

Walk the halls of the State Department's main offices in Washington these days, and you'll encounter an abundance of political cartoons

[eBelasco]

State needs to be purged. All DemoRats and communists by other names must be let go, and none hired. Party affiliation must be checked on all new hires. Any civil servant who questions the policy handed them by the elected official should be fired.

[Dan from Michigan]

Can't Bush just say two words to many of those people.

As in "You're FIRED?"

[mombonn]

I hate that my tax dollars go to support these infidels.

[Provost-Marshal]

What do we even need the State Dep't for, anyway? It is an anachronism from the 18th century. The military does a far better job promoting our interests in foreign countries. It is more effective, efficient, and inspires respect. The State Department is a hot-aired joke.

[mombonn]

Why are these people not FIRED?

Just a guess that there's a union involved. Here in MI, government workers belong to one.

[eBelasco]

So just reduce the budget to force layoffs.

[sarcasm]

Do you want a political litmus test for government employment?

[eBelasco]

Some sort of bare-bones State Department would be needed to issue ultimatums from the White House.

[Timesink]

Do you want a political litmus test for government employment?

I expect members of the executive branch to work FOR the president, not AGAINST him. Do you expect and encourage your employees to openly plot against you and your policies?

[eBelasco]

Why not?

[bert]

New embassies, new consulates in lower slabovia are the answer. equip them with the best strain of carrier pigeons available

[eBelasco]

If whatever useless civil service union objects, just set up an office for them in Toronto and Peking.

[bert]

....there's a union involved....

It's worse than that....... ivy league striped tie elitism.

[RightWhale]

The cartoons overwhelmingly lampoon President Bush as a simpleton who doesn't understand the "complexities" of the foreign policy.

As if anyone does. In spite of attempts to introduce order here and there, it appears that a tendency to complexity is a law of nature. It isn't Walden Pond out there.

[sarcasm]

Ummm, what happens when Democrats win back the White House?

[sarcasm]

I expect members of the executive branch to work FOR the president, not AGAINST him. Do you expect and encourage your employees to openly plot against you and your policies?

I believe that their salaries are paid by the America people - not the President.

[eBelasco]

Their slavish adherence to political correctness will prohibit them from purging those who disagree with them. Furthermore, the Republican loyalists who would by then beentrenched in the whittled down State Dept could actively oppose their policies. That, or we just make sure it never happens.

[sarcasm]

Their slavish adherence to political correctness will prohibit them from purging those who disagree with them.

Keep dreaming.

[DLfromthedesert]

Behold!! The ugly head of Mr. Haass arises in another thread.

[DPB101]

Bush is chipping away quietly at the bureaucracy. Last November, he announced plans to privatize 850,000 Federal jobs. 127,500 of them should be contracted out by October. In February, Bush terminated collective bargining rights for 1,300 Federal employees at the National Imagery and Mapping Agency (security concerns). In June of 2002, Bush signed an EO eliminating the designation of Air Traffic Control as an ""inherently governmental" system (this could lead to privatization). In January of 2002, Bush signed an EO removing collective bargining rights from 500 employees at the Department of Justice. In February of 2001, Bush signed an EO banning "project labor agreements" which set work rules and wages on large Federal projects.