will happen at every agency of the government. Every interest group that supported BHO will have a hit list that goes way down into the merit system employees, not just the appointee level. The unions will purge USDOL. La Raza will purge ICE. CAIR will purge DHS. The ACLU, civil rights groups, and other interests will purge USDOJ, right down into the law enforcement ranks - they may not fire FBI agents, but they’ll sure decide who gets an office with no windows and a seat that flushes. Regional administrators, auditors, and other oversight staff in various agencies will either be removed or find a laser dot on their forehead.

Competence is in short supply in the federal government under the best of circumstances, but that is compounded by the fact that even though we’re supposed to have “civil service” employees, your job is forfeit every four years - even if you’re only a worker bee. Unlike Republicans who are generally afraid to even fire political appointees who engage in outright sedition or treason, Democrats will fire public employees for the crime of actually doing their job.

USDOL and USDOJ have quietly gone after lots of unions over the last eight years, not nearly as much as they should have, but enough for the unions to have really felt the pressure. I will guarantee you that everybody in a management/supervisory role in that will either be fired or not have an office or a phone by March. The employees below that level will either be harrassed out of their jobs or harrased into fetal position for the next four or eight years. That story will be repeated for auditors who went after HSS corruption in Blue states or misspent DOE funds in big city school districts, or non-union contractors on federally funded jobs, and on, and on.

The other side of it is that the efforts of those employees will be “redirected.” Their investigations of anything or anyone that has an “in” with the Administration will be ended. Court cases will be settled or dropped. Administrative appeals will be dropped. Regulatory processess will completely change direction. How long do you think it will take BHO’s Department of the Interior to put the Polar Bear and the Walrus on the Endangered Species list? There goes any further oil development off Alaska’s coasts and potentially ALL future development of ANY industry that produces carbon.

I’ve been on the receiving end of a Democrat transition team. It’s not really a big deal if you’re a political appointee. You expect to get fired if your candidate loses, and if you didn’t, you shouldn’t have taken the appointment. But Democrats go right down to the clerks, and especially they go after husbands, wives, and SOs of the prior administration’s appointees. Under the best of circumstances, government work is a “closed shop.” If it is known that the Administration is after you or has forced you out of a job, you are simply unemployable elsewhere in government; no manager is going to take the risk of having that red dot on his forehead because he gave you a job, or your wife a job, or your kid a job, or anybody who’ll admit to being your friend a job. The new appointees will be going through their employee rolls and comparing them to political contributor lists. If your name is on the wrong list, welcome to employment Hell.

It is easy for Democrats. Republicans don’t fire many people and certainly don’t take the risk of going down into the merit system. High level Democrats that get fired by a Republican adminstration just segue over to one of the non-profits that shadow every federal agency, to a law firm, a union, or some interest group. There’s very little of that for Republicans fired by a Democrat Administration, so you’re in the wilderness and essentially unemployable if your specialty is one of those things done only by government.

I’ll guarantee you there’s a lot of fear and trepidation in the ranks of federal employees these days. And we’ll never hear a word of any of it. Since it is Democrats doing it, the media won’t care or may even applaud what’s going on.

Obama is an incompetent boob who has no experience. He is a politician who knows how to get elected and how to reward his buddies - a lesson learned well in the cesspool of Chicago politics.

As you imply, America may soon learn the sad lesson of electing nothing more than a slogan.

to reiterate my postion

1. The senior career people at CIA are hostile to the War on Terror. They have demonstrated that consistently via their leaks, books, etc. If you want the War on Terror to continue to be prosecuted as anything other than a law enforcement action, choosing a DCI who came up through the agency is not the way to go.

2. GHW Bush’s first intelligence job was as DCI. When selected he was head of the RNC. I’m not saying Panetta is GHW Bush but I am saying that GHW Bush was better than Stansfield Turner (military intelligence background) or George Tenet (homegrown CIA). As I pointed out yesterday, when you look at the accomplishments/failures of the CIA they are totally unrelated to the DCI’s background.

To the meat of the matter. If something bad does happen, who would you rather be in charge of the CIA? A career professional who will be tossed under the bus or a politically connected insider who will at least provide some amusement while thumping around the rear duals? (I use the worst case example not because I am hoping for an attack but only because I assume Obama will take credit for any and all successes regardless of who is in charge.)

For the record, I don’t think the CIA has kept us safe and I don’t think they are capable of keeping us safe. Given their reduced role under the current DNI framework, the head of CIA is a lot less relevant than who is the DNI.

I think what has kept us safe is the extraordinary covert capability developed by USSOCOM, the fact that we are stationing military covert action teams in assorted countries, and our large scale and active presence in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Horn of Africa which had deprived transnational terror organizations of funds and safe havens for training camps and planning.

I am happy to have an inconsequential nobody like Panetta in charge of the CIA, I would be even happier if the congress dissolved the CIA.

The CIA is a do-nothing, asinine, ideological left, career bureaucrat dumping ground. They were wrong about nearly everything during the cold war, and have gotten nothing right about jihad.(when they were not actively conspiring with the state department to undermine the president.

I refer you to a good book by John Diamond. The CIA and the Culture of Failure

How much of the CIA chief’s job is being top spy and how much of it is being buraeucrat? I think that is the key question here, if its a bureaucratic job than Panetta is a ok, but underwhelming, pick as he can do that and that agency isnt working that way it should (run up to 9/11 and Iraq War. If it is more of a hands on intelliegence job than he should not be it. I still do not why he did not choose Jane Harmon, she someone who has been critical of Bush adminastration policy, but I think everyone would agree she is a grown up on intellegence issues unlike Panetta.

OK, it’s a rhetorical question.

But still, they just seem to be organically unable to get over BDS and their hatred of everything Republican. Collectively, we do have enemies who are capable of inflicting greater damage to the country than Halliburton, Blackwater and Dick Cheney combined.

Their model of behavior relative to the country seems to mimic the relationship between parasitic unions (UAW or SEIU) and their employers. In their single minded power-grabs, they are blissfully unaware that what they’re doing is strangling the host.

if not directly about Panetta then about the whole world view of the BHO Administration.

Defenses will come down… be relaxed and there will be another attack… ‘the world’ knows he’s weak, and will want to get him to get out… of everything.

And when it does the carnage it will make 9/11 pale in comparison.

Elections have consequences BHO is who ‘the people’ wanted. Now they will get him.

Just watch how Israel/Gaza(Hamas) pans out over the coming months. How BO and his administration acts (and reacts) will tell you everything you need to know. My guess is that Israel will, ultimately, end up weaker unless Hamas is destroyed. Watch how the international community responds to that action AND to BO’s actions.

If Israel is not objectively victorious, the green light is on for Iran and all its proxies. You don’t annoy the termites that are destroying your house, you eliminate them. And, the terminates aren’t destroying your house because of an ideology.

Hopefully, oil prices will stay very low to provide less funding and help increase the unrest in the oil-rich middle east countries. That would help much more than the BO administration will.

This bunch of Political hacks that will be putting forth their Surrender First Doctrine designed to advance/protect the Democrat Party from losing support of its Leftist loonies should be hanged from the nearest Washington DC trees as the Traitors to the Country they are (by putting Country LAST) once it occurs!

Next time I won’t sugar-coat it!