In truth none of us will be safe until the Bush/Cheney moles are rooted out of our Government....

[Blackhatjack]

There are 'career' employees who have burrowed themselves into positions from which they can subvert the Obama Administration's efforts.

Cheney is likely still stirring up trouble with them even though he is out of office.

Obama needs to root them out asap if he wants to accomplish the goals he set out during his campaign.

[merh]

1. Obama told his cabinet at a meeting this morning that they all

had to cut $100,000,000.00 from their budgets. Hopefully, that will make it easier to get rid of the bush trash that was given career gubnet jobs before he left office. Best way to get rid of dead weight and moles is by budget cuts. Do away with the job, no civil service protection if the job description no longer exists.

[panader0]

3. I heard him say something like "100 million here, 100 million there

and pretty soon we're talking about real money." That puts things in perspective.
Edit to say: agree with the OP

[merh]

5. It reminded me of the movie "Dave"

[HowHasItComeToThis]

16. Publicize THE MOLES NAMES AND HOUND THEM OUT

PRINT THEIR NAMES FAR AND WIDE.

SHAMES THEM INTO OBLIVION

[Ghost in the Machine]

17. PNAC Signatories - Lest We Forget

PNAC Signatories - Lest We Forget

"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor"

Yes the PNACers have gone to ground for the moment but....

Lest we forget:
http://www.king-george.biz/wst_page5.html

Project For A New American Century Signatories:

There are interesting names on both lists - Some I wasn't aware of.

Original 25 PNAC Signatories

Elliott Abrams
Gary Bauer
William J. Bennett
Jeb Bush
Dick Cheney
Eliot A. Cohen
Midge Decter
Paula Dobriansky
Steve Forbes
Aaron Friedberg
Francis Fukuyama
Frank Gaffney
Fred C. Ikle
Donald Kagan
Zalmay Khalilzad
Lewis Scooter Libby
Norman Podhoretz
Dan Quayle
Peter W. Rodman
Stephen P. Rosen
Henry S. Rowen
Donald Rumsfeld
Vin Weber
George Weigel
Paul Wolfowitz

Additional PNAC Signatories

Morton Abramowitz
Gordon Adams
Ken Adelman
Urban Ahlin
Madeleine K. Albright
Richard V. Allen
Giuliano Amato
Mark A. Anderson
Uzi Arad
Richard L. Armitage
Timothy Garton Ash
Anders Aslund
Ronald Asmus
Andrew Y. Au
Maureen Aung-Thwin
Nina Bang-Jensen
Rafael L. Bardaji
Carolyn Bartholomew
Wladyslaw Bartoszewski
Arnold Beichman
Peter Beinart
Jeffrey Bell
Jeffrey Bergner
Robert L. Bernstein
George Biddle
Carl Bildt
Daniel Blumenthal
John Bolton
Max Boot
Ellen Bork
Rudy Boshwitz
Pascal Bruckner
Mark Brzezinski
William F. Buckley, Jr
Reinhard Buetikofer
Janusz Bugajski
Buster C. Glosson (USAF Ret),
Michael Butler
Martin Butora
Daniele Capezzone
Per Carlsen
Gunilla Carlsson
Frank Carlucci
Linda Chavez
Steven C. Clemons
Seth Cropsey
Ivo H. Daalder
Helle Dale
Massimo D'Alema
Dennis DConcini
Pavol Demes
Larry Diamond
Peter Dimitrov
James Dobbins
Thomas Donnelly
Nicholas Eberstadt
Robert Edgar
Uffe Elleman-Jensen
Amitai Etzioni
Lee Feinstein
Edwin J. Feulner, Jr.
Jeffrey L. Fiedler
Michele Flournoy
Hillel Fradkin
Aaron Friedberg
Frank Gaffney
Peter Galbraith
Jeffrey Gedmin
Sam Gejdenson
Robert S. Gelbard
Reuel Marc Gerecht
Bronislaw Geremek
Carl Gershmann
Marc Ginsberg
Andre Glucksmann
Merle Goldman
Philip Gordon
Daniel Goure
Istvan Gyarmati
Morton Halperin
Pierre Hassner
Vaclav Havel
John Herfferman
Charles Hill
Richard C. Holbrooke
James Hooper
Toomas Ilves
Martin S. Indyk
Bruce P. Jackson
Eli S. Jacobs
Michael Joyce
Frederick Kagan
Robert Kagan
Max M. Kampelman
Adrian Karatnycky
Penn Kemble
Craig Kennedy
Paul Kennedy
Col. Robert Killebrew (USA, Ret)
Glenys Kinnock
Lane Kirklan
Jeane J. Kirkpatrick
Harold Hongju Koh
Bernard Kouchner
Peter Kovler
Jerzy Kozminski
Louis Kraar
van Krastev
Charles Krauthammer
William Kristol
Girts Valdis Kristovskis
Ludger Kuehnhardt
Mart Laar
Mark Lagon
Anthony Lake
Vytautas Landsbergis
Stephen Larrabee
John Lehman
Lewis E. Lehrman
Mark Leonard
Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger
Tod Lindberg
James Lindsay
Perry Link
Bette Bao Lord
Rich Lowry
Connie Mack
Christopher Makins
Tom Malinowski
James Mann
Yu Mao-chun
Mary Beth Markey
Will Marshall
Margarita Mathiopoulos
Clifford May
Sen. John McCain
Michael McFaul
Daniel McKivergan
Matteo Mecacci
Mark Medish
Edwin Meese III
Thomas O. Melia
Saah E. Mendelson
Michael Mertes
Ilir Meta
Adam Michnik
Derek Mitchell
Richard Morningstar
Joshua Muravchik
Klaus Naumann
Wing C. Ng
Steven J. Nider
Dietmar Nietan
James O'Brien
Michael O'Hanlon
Janusz Onyszkiewicz
Mackubin Thomas Owens
Wayne Owens
Cem Ozdemir
Can Paker
Mark Palmer
Martin Peretz
Richard Perle
Ralph Peters
Friedbert Pflueger
Daniel Pipes
Danielle Pletka
Norman Podhoretz
John Edward Porter
Florentino Portero
Barry R. McCaffrey (Gen. USA, Ret)
Samantha Ravich
Anusz Reiter
Sophie Richardson
Robert H. Scales (USA, Ret)
Peter Rodman
Alex Rondos
Jim Rosapepe
Dennis Ross
Kenneth Roth
Jacques Rupnik
Eberhard Sandschneider
Randy Scheunemann
Christian Schmidt
Gary Schmitt
William Schneider, Jr.
Charles Schumer Senator
Simon Serfaty
Stephen Sestanovich
John Shattuck
Sin-Ming Shaw
Richard H. Shultz
Radek Sikorski
Stefano Silvestri
Martin Simecka
Paul Simon
Walter Slocombe
Gary Smith
Abraham Sofaer
Henry Sokolski
Stephen J. Solarz
Helmut Sonnenfeldt
James B. Steinberg
Leonard Sussman
John J. Sweeney
William Howard Taft IV
Dick Thornburgh
Gry Titley
John Tkacik
Helga Flores Trejo
Ed Turner
Karl-Theodor von zu Guttenberg
Ivan Vejvoda
Sasha Vondra
Arthur Waldron
Cleste Wallander
Malcolm Wallop
James Webb
Ruth Wedgood
Caspar Weinberger
Kenneth Weinstein
Richard Weitz
Paul Weyrich
Leon Wieseltier
Chris Williams
Jennifer Windsor
Marshall Wittmann
R. James Woolsey
Minky Worden
Larry Wortzel
Dov Zakheim
Robert B. Zoellick

:hi:

[ProgressiveProfessor]

21. Are any of them GS or SES Federal Employess (vice political appointees) today?

[Ghost in the Machine]

22. Well... 3 Senators kinda jump out at me...

John McCain, Chuck Schumer & James Webb...

:hi:

[ProgressiveProfessor]

23. All of whom are neither GS or SES and doi not qualify as moles

[Ghost in the Machine]

26. Well Professor, how much deeper in Government could they be embedded?

We had a PNACer neocon cockroach as Vice President for 8 years....

[ProgressiveProfessor]

20. How do you determine who are the moles? Its really not possible

As shown in other posts here, its not clear its a problem

[ProgressiveProfessor]

9. Your technique will not work. There are prohibitions against doing exactly what you suggest

Also with Obama wanting to increase the size of government, a RIF is not going to happen either.

[merh]

10. You are mistaken

There are no prohibitions to doing away with positions if budgets must be cut.

Barack Obama gathered his Cabinet members around a White House table Monday and asked them collectively to find $100 million in cost cuts over the next three months. That's a fraction of a fraction of the federal deficit, and it quickly drew ridicule from pundits and Republicans.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h2qtj24vzZZS2Jid8I03W0bz7zXwD97MG37G1

[ProgressiveProfessor]

11. To discontinue positions takes much more than mere budget cuts and the merit protection processess

will block what is clearly political firings. Its what protected a lot of good people from Bush and Reagan. Instead the cuts will come in closing vacant positions, training, and curtail services and procurements.

Talk to an experienced Fed, GS-14 or higher...its not nearly as simplistic as you state.

[merh]

12. It really is, reorganization and downsizing - it is done quite often

in government.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

14. Not often and not by the Feds. RIFs are rare and far between

The closest thing to large scale reductions was the DoD BRAC. No one was fired, but their jobs may have been moved to the other coast. Many left, which was clearly part of the intent.

The merit system was designed to prevent patronage and political firings from becoming the norm. Feds work hard on protecting it. Its just not going to happen. The political appointees will set the agenda. GS and SES will go along or be gone (insubordination is a cause for dismissal).

I am yet to see any verified number that shows this is a really a legitimate problem. Is anyone xo foolish to believe that this administration is unique in having civil servant hold overs?

[Mind_your_head]

2. Yep - agree. And THAT is a herculean task ~ of an by itself.

The bush/cheney moles HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO MORALS/NO SCRUPLES/NO PRINCIPLES AT ALL ..... AT ALL [/b}

[valerief]

7. Psychopaths don't and they're definitely psychopaths. nt

[EFerrari]

4. Career scofflaws.

Look what happened when Bush the Lesser got to rehire all those IranContra felons -- Iraq, Abu Ghraib, Gitmo, the whole ugly package.

Obama has some of them in his government already like Gates and Brennan.

They need to go asap.

/oops

[ProgressiveProfessor]

6. HOw does one tell the moles from civil servants hired in the last 8 years?

Once the one year period is up, firing them is damn near impossible.

[MrSlayer]

8. More like the neos in both parties need to be removed.

There are as many on "our" side as there are on theirs. We need to get real about this.

[kentuck]

13. At the present time...

in a lot of departments, a lot of folks do not know the other employees. They do not know if they stayed on after Bush left or if they were hired on by the new Administration. It might be a worthwhile effort to double-check the employee records of every person in every department to see if they were "hired" just before George W Bush left office??

[ProgressiveProfessor]

15. Easy to do techincally, but it proves nothing.It could be a legitimate backfill of an open position

How does one really separate the wheat from the chaff.

A similar issue that no one even seems to consider is politically motivated promotions given...a much larger and even harder thing to prove

[kentuck]

18. Nothing more than a red flag...

...it proves nothing. You are correct.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

19. And that flag would smear many innocent people. There are no stats that say this is even a problem

its blogosphere hysteria more than anything else as best I can tell

[ThomWV]

24. Like-minded Democrats are no better than Republican moles.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

25. I would like to know why the Labor Department was so incapable

of responding to and investigating wage and hour complaints. Pretty cut and dried stuff that should have been easy to investigate and determine outcome. They just couldn't do it. So, to me, that's a performance issue.

Same with the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Division in the Justice Department.