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

[Gritty]

The State Department has been infested with self-serving cockroaches for years. It needs a thorough fumigation.

[eBelasco]

Termination of unjust collective bargaining "rights" of civil servants is a good step. Next should be the removal of collective bargaining rights from the private sector. He should not stop with the bureaucracy. All federal agencies should also be subject to these steps of privitization and removal of collective rights.

[DPB101]

With trial lawyers coming down people's chimneys to beg them to sue their employer for anything or nothing, unions serve no purpose today. Except for government unions. They lobby government for more government. Trials lawyers are not as efficient in that.

[eBelasco]

Exactly. Government unions, staffed by gov't workers, lobby other gov;t workers. It's a racket.

[Lancey Howard]

...there are few Bush loyalists at Foggy Bottom. Karl Rove has the power to change that, although it won't be easy fighting entrenched State Department interests.....Mr. Rove must act quickly.

The Washington Times has done some legwork here. Clearly, the State Department is still infested with cowardly, socialist Clinton mice.

What are you waiting for, Karl?

[MarkL]

I've said it before, but I believe that one of the greatest threats to the security of the United States of America is the US State Department. I believe that the culture of socialism and one world government has been nurtured there since the FDR administration.

I keep hearing about "career diplomats" who are "apolitical." I disagree strongly with that. The thought that there are people working on behalf on the USA who do not have the welfare and independence of the USA first and foremost in their minds is a national tradgedy!

Mark

[alloysteel]

The difference between the Defense Department and the State Department is, Rumsfeld had done a pretty good job of pruning out the deadwood, while Powell has a rather nastier thicket of thorns to go through.

Not Powell's shortcoming, just a much bigger job. The culture at State has been little changed since the days of the New Deal. But a few fracture lines are starting to appear, as some of the more important desks change bit by bit, and the old guard is more and more isolated.

[FreeReign]

Consider an example with deep policy ramifications. On March 31, representatives of the North Korean government told State Department officials, for the first time, that they were reprocessing plutonium, a key step in developing nuclear weapons. The Pentagon and the White House did not learn of this stunning announcement until Pyongyang told them during previously scheduled talks with North Korea in China on April 18. The State Department intentionally withheld this vital piece of information, fearing that, if the White House knew, officials there might call off the meeting. The White House was reportedly furious about this deception, but it has done nothing concrete to make sure it doesn't happen again. A White House official laments, "We always get really worked up, but then we don't do anything."

This Op-Ed piece is based on this one story as told by an unnamed White House official.

If this story is true, and I'm not sure that it is, then the title of the Op-Ed piece should be, "Fog in the Oval Office".

[Vigilanteman]

How the State Department selects these geniuses.

[zip]

Do you want a political litmus test for government employment?

Yes, when they are working for the President and not against him. They should implement his directives not x42's.