Burrowing

The WaPo reports that the Bush administration is busy transferring political appointees to civil service roles. So far, the main action seems to be in the Interior Department, HUD, and Labor.

It will be more difficult to get rid these crooks as civil servants, and undoubtedly they will continue to damage the country, and try to enrich themselves and their friends, which is what they've been doing as political appointees. The article also informs us that Clinton used the same technique, which doesn't surprise us at all.

The real danger to the Obama administration will not be these clowns, avarice and incompetence in the federal bureaucracy is nothing new, but rather in the people that Cheney has planted throughout in 'intelligence' apparatus, and the military. These people were put there precisely because they will continue to obey orders from their gangster masters, and undermine those coming down the chain of command.

So, the first and most important task of the new administration will be to insure its ability to command. A big first test will be the Greatest General EVAR Petraeus. He was given the mantle to set policy by Bush, and as the head of CENTCOM has completely displaced the barely sentient Condi from policy and diplomacy throughout Asia.

I'm not sure that Petraeus is a Cheneyite. The signs of overriding personal ambition make it hard to believe that he is anyone's man but his own. Obama can take one of three ways with him:

1. Let Petraeus continue to run CENTCOM as before. That might lead to some interesting situations if Sen. Clinton takes over at State. Whatever one might think about her, she is no Condi.
2. Impose policy as the Commander in Chief. Petraeus's reaction may be to quit, and to move directly into presidential politics.
3. Bump him up to the Joint Chiefs. It's hard to quit after a promotion, even if the higher post really has less power.

A clue to how this will play out is Obama's choice for SecDef. Keeping Gates would seem to make choice 2 difficult. He will definitely need his own guy at SecDef to fight Petraeus.