They told me that if I voted for McCain, political appointees would ruthlessly strong-arm career government employees, and force them to stay silent when their views deviated from the company line. And they were right!
[Gates] said he tried to give the services the “maximum possible opportunity” to share their views during the internal budget negotiations.
“The thing that is important is to reinforce within the building, in terms of dealing with the Hill, that there is a chain of command,” he said. “Once the decision is made, and particularly once the president signs off on the budget, then there needs to be discipline about people not conducting guerilla warfare against decisions the president has made.”
