Every now and then I post an article that I do not fully understand. This is one of those times. Although the details of this are confusing to me, I am posting it because what is being done here is important.
Thursday's Washington Examiner posted an article entitled, "Obama to weed out Bush political appointees who careered in; Establishes new political test for career jobs." The article explains that John Berry, President Obama's director of the U.S. Office of Personnel Management (OPM), has issued a new directive that will introduce politics into the hiring process of civil servants. The OPM was originally created to end the practice of civil service jobs being used for political rewards. Now it is being used to make sure people who have ideas contrary to President Obama do not get those jobs. This is done indirectly by using a time restriction. Please read the entire article to get the details of what is at work here.
The article points out:
"...if you worked for President Bush in the executive branch at any time during his second term in the White House, you may not be approved. The same applies if you worked for a Republican Member of Congress at any point during the past five years.
"Amazingly, even Berry had to acknowledge in his directive that political appointees cannot be barred from career positions because of their political views. The whole point of the career service, after all, is to insure that federal workers are hired on the basis of merit, not their political views."
One of the things that bothers me about the Obama Administration is the way it deals with people who have ideas that are different from their ideas. This is another example of that mindset. Part of the strength of democracy is the free discussion of opposing ideas. I am not sure that concept is allowed under this administration.
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