[hchutch]

Powell is not the problem.

The problem is the "lifers" in State, who probably have connections to so-called "progressives" in Congress. Dealing with them won't be as easy as reforming the Pentagon.

But this proves Newt was right about the underlying situation. Some of his specifics were off, but there are clearly serious problems at Foggy Bottom. Of course, one need only to have seen their treatment of Carlos Castano to figure that out...

[Consort]

Yes, and the people who do the hiring throughout the vast bureaucracy only hire Leftists to fill all vacancies. It gets much worse during Democrat Administrations (and still there are people right here on this site who say they may not support the GOP, claiming it's a matter of "princilples" or "morals" or "conscience").

[Grampa Dave]

The card carrying Rats in the State Department and every federal branch or service are the problem. It is not the cabinet members appointed by President Bush. It is the federal tenure that these clymers have. They can say and basically do anything to embarass the president or his cabinet members without any recourse. Their jobs are secure.

Before GW was sworn in, these career Rats in Justice, the FBI, EPA, the Pentagon, State and other departments and services were issuing statements backing very liberal agendas.

Immediately the professional hate GW writers on the far right were blaming GW or his cabinet for these terrible actions that just had to be the fault of GW and his proposed cabinet members. When GW was sworn in and his cabinet members were finally approved and sworn in, this process continued.

These professional hate GW writers never addressed the real problem.

The real problem was/is the thousands and thousands of top level rats inherited by the administration. These are high level civil service employees, who are protected from being fired by Federal Civil Service laws. That problem was ignored as the various new cabinet members were electronically lynched for being so liberal.

This is another reason why we need to increase our members in the house and to have 60 senators in 2005. Then, they can address this massive problem across all Federal Departments/services. They need to pass a law that requires every civil service employe from GS 7 and above to submit a letter of resignation that is effective for 4 years, (each presidental term).

That letter of resignation would then allow the cabinet member or the president to enact the letters of resignation when a civil service employee's behavior is inappropriate like this clymer's from the state department.

Until this is done, this problem of inherited bad actors, who are protected by civil service laws will continue. These bad actors are a clear and present danger to our safety and future of this country.