Bush Appointees: We're Not Going Anywhere

When President Bush leaves Washington in January, many of his appointees won't be going with him, Daniel Schulman writes in Mother Jones. Administration workers are "burrowing in," arranging to trade their political positions for cushy career jobs, even though many were unqualified when hired. They ensure that the civil service will be seeded "with ideologues whose influence may be felt for decades to come," Schulman warns.

Burrowing is nothing new—it dates back at least to Reagan—but the Bush Administration has heightened the practice, positioning allies in jobs without an appointment process. Such widespread burrowing is "something we'd have a hearing on in a minute," said one state rep. But, he added, chuckling: "Partisanship—I think there are a lot of people who play at it."
(More George W. Bush stories.)