It Must be Nice to Be Bush's Boy......

Mad Scramble to hook up his people before he leave the office....

Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has
shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees
who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior
civil service posts.
The transfer of political appointees into permanent
federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for
those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama
administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key
jobs.

Similar efforts are taking place at other agencies. Two political hires
at the Labor Department have already secured career posts there, and one at the Department
of Housing and Urban Development is trying to make the switch.

Between March 1 and Nov. 3, according to
the federal Office of Personnel Management, the Bush administration allowed 20 political appointees to
become career civil servants. Six political appointees to the
Senior Executive Service, the government's most prestigious and highly paid
employees, have received approval to take career jobs at the same level.
Fourteen other political, or "Schedule C," appointees have also been approved to
take career jobs. One candidate was turned down by OPM and two were withdrawn by
the submitting agency.

The personnel moves come as Bush administration officials are
scrambling to cement in place policy and regulatory initiatives that touch on
issues such as federal drinking-water standards, air quality at national parks,
mountaintop mining and fisheries limits.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/17/AR2008111703537.html?hpid=topnews