Tom Frank Quote of the Day (noon plus :42)

[Said Grover Norquist,] "First we want to remove liberal personnel from the political process. Then we want to capture those positions of power and influence for conservatives. Stalin taught the impotance of this principle. He was running the personnel department, while Trotsky was fighting the White Army. When push came to shove for ontrol of the Soviet Union, Stalin won. His people were in place and Trotsky's were not.... With this principle in mind, conservatives must do all they can to make sure that they get jobs in Washington."...

The assault began in earnest in the first days of the Reagan administration, with the New Right demanding jobs for wingers and shrieking every time a moderate Republican received an important position. The resulting politicization of government operations was unprecedented, with loyalists in and career civil servants out. By the summer of 1981, according to one report, 59 percent of the 'sub-cabinet appointees' confirmed by the Senate had no experience in government, as did 78 percent of Reagan's hires at independent agencies and a full 100 percent at the independent regulatory agencies....

The great thing about the experience of reading Tom's new book is that for weeks afterward the daily news will resemble nothing more than a full-color illustration of its findings.

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