[FreedomPoster]

Technically, I'm more of a paleo-conservative with some libertarian leanings.

While I generally trust Dubya's judgement, I don't trust that he has the capability of rooting out incompetance from the bureaucracy due to the vagaries of Federal hiring/firing laws. It's entirely possible there are those he and his lieutenants would like to fire, but can't.

[concerned about politics]

It's entirely possible there are those he and his lieutenants would like to fire, but can't.

For sure. Get a comfy goverment job, and you're there for life. Try to fire a school teacher on the goverment payroll!

[Southern Federalist]

19th and 20th century civil service reform is definitely underestimated as a cause of the decay of popular government in the United States. Why shouldn't the spoils -- i.e. the ability to appoint people to positions in the executive branch of government -- belong to the victor -- that is, the elected President? Why should the people be stuck for life with the civil servants of a different era, whose politics and policies they may have repudiated at the polls? True, the old system meant a lot of jobs were given out as political rewards, but that also meant they were given to people who would support the elected President and Chief Executive of the United States. Typical reformist distaste for the inevitable crudities of popular government - the same mentality that clamors for campaign finance reform.