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From the very beginning Bush's appointees in many areas were slowed down because of Gore's refusal to admit defeat. This made a difficult transistion period for any administration come to a virtual halt while the obscenity in Florida played out. The dems in the Senate took their time allowing his people to get approved because of their anger over the Florida vote. Once 9/11 hit he didn't have the luxury of firing Tenet with the confidence of the American people so shaken already. Then he had to try and clean up the mess Clinton left behind from his foreign policy failures while Rumsfield was shaking up the Dept.of Defense and butting heads with people that refused to see a new way of meeting the challenges of future warfare.

I believe Bush really thought he could work with the dems in Washington. There were some bull headed dems here in TX he was able to work with while he was governor. The dems in Washington openly said this wasn't TX and they were hell bent on not working with him.

While GW's intentions of keeping Clinton loyalists in many positions were good, I am concerned about what is at stake if he doesn't clean out the trash that is putting personal ideology before our safety. They know their leaks and lies,in combination with their cohorts in the media,are putting us in danger. The enemies of the U.S. feel they can do alot of things they didn't dare when the country was united after 9/11.

Pres.Bush is not stupid,and I pray he is doing some things we don't know about to get things under control. I don't see Tenet being one of them anytime soon because the press would say it was payback for "honest" CIA employees trying to get the "truth" out to the American people. In 2004,settle the score GW. Take out the trash.

Re your post #100, I believe you are right. President Bush was in office just 7 1/2 months on 9/11/01, and the administration was barely up and running due to the shortened transition time. They did a remarkable job just to have all the department secretaries and some of the deputy secretaries confirmed and in place in 7 months. A couple of key figures (e.g., FBI Directer and Joint Chiefs Chm.) took office just before and just after 9/11. Maybe the President was working around to restaffing the CIA, but didn't have the chance. Like you, I hope the President can clean house in his 2nd term (although I refuse to take his reelection for granted).