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Individuals with experience in the executive transition process, tell me it may take upwards of six months or more, for team Obama to fully cleanse the pentagon and justice department of leftover Bush administration loyalists--the kind who have demonstrated already just how eager they are to undercut the new President whereever an opportunity presents itself.
After eight years of evangelical neoconservative rule, taking out the trash will take time. These disloyal individuals know it, while many conservatives express a willingness to place country above politics and give President Obama an opportunity to contribute toward bipartisan solutions to the multitude of problems that must be addressed.
Unfortunately our sons and daughters in uniform will be the ones to suffer and die as a consequence of a few dozen individuals who now head to work each morning, intent on creating as much misery for the new administration as possibl--unconcerned their actions risk the lives of those on the front lines.
Regrettably the same type of men and women who participated in and ordered Patrick Tillman's body stripped naked on the field of battle, so they could burn his uniform in an attempt to bolster President Bush's great beguilement, still walk the halls and have influence. They remain simply to make mischief and draw a paycheck. The kind of people who have lots of ribbons and service medals, but have never actually been in combat. Perhaps thankfully for those who have since, they are the first to bolt in battle or sell out others to save their own skins.
Meanhile, over at the Justice department a couple of prestigious alumni of Pat Robertson's bible law and typewriter repair academy will continue to fester like pus in an open wound--requiring time and sometimes painful debreeding as responsible individuals go about the business of restoring the agency and rule of law to vitality.
It's no coincidence someone at the Pentagon leaked news about a soon to be de-classified report on Gitmo, a day after the President signed an executive order closing it--or another at Justice simply substituted Barack Obama's name for George Bush's on request for a stay in a controversial case regarding wiretaps.
The one agency ready on day one, The State Department--which served as a coffee and tea job for Condi Rice after Colin Powell was booted out--is the singular exception.
Because the United States didn't practice much diplomacy under the last President, it wasn't funded or even fully staffed. Neoconservatives, ever ready to sacrifice the blood of other parents' children, are by nature cowardly and avoided the foreign service--because assignment to places like Iraq and Afghanistan was dangerous. Secretary Clinton was able to pretty much take charge her first day.
While restoration of civil liberty and returning to the rule of law will take time, President Obama is frank about warning the economy may get worse before it gets better. His approval rating reflects the fact a majority of Americans fully support his plans. I speculate those republicans and blue dog democrats who are attempting to position themselves for a political pissing contest, are going to get drenched, come the 2010 midterms. Liberals, progressives and moderate republicans will gain even more seats in both chambers of the congress.
