Yesterday I blogged that burrowing — the practice of executive branch political appointees landing jobs as career civil servants at the end of a presidency — was rampant under George W. Bush. Yet it appeared little could be done to stop it.

Well, the Washington Post’s Carol D. Leoning and R. Jeffrey Smith report that there is some pushback about this burrowing. Sen’s Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Diane Feinstein (D-Ca.) wrote to the president saying that the burrowing is "regrettable but entirely foreseeable." The White House responded that it was not their policy to tell political appointees to seek career jobs.

But the list of successful burrowers thus far is at least a little suspicious. They include two legal advisers at the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Justice Dept’s civil rights division. The Bush administration has pushed an anti-regulatory agenda at CPSC to new levels. And the civil rights division seems perpetually wrapped up in investigating bogus charges of voter fraud. Will these burrowers push to continue Bush’s agenda?-MB

Comment RSS - You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.