The Obama Administration Continues Incompetence In Filling Positions

More than half of the 500 top policymaking positions remain unfilled by the Obama Administration. That includes quite a few at the Treasury Department, which has been dealing with one of the worst economic crisis in generations.

Of more than 500 senior policymaking positions requiring Senate confirmation, just 43 percent have been filled — a reflection of a White House that grew more cautious after several nominations blew up last spring, a Senate that is intensively investigating nominees and a legislative agenda that has consumed both.

While career employees or holdovers fill many posts on a temporary basis, Mr. Obama does not have his own people enacting programs central to his mission. He is trying to fix the financial markets but does not have an assistant treasury secretary for financial markets. He is spending more money on transportation than anyone since Dwight D. Eisenhower but does not have his own inspector general watching how the dollars are used. He is fighting two wars but does not have an Army secretary.

He sent Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to Africa to talk about international development but does not have anyone running the Agency for International Development. He has invited major powers to a summit on nuclear nonproliferation but does not have an assistant secretary of state for nonproliferation.

“If you’re running G.M. without half your senior executives in place, are you worried? I’d say your stockholders would be going nuts,” said Terry Sullivan, a professor at the University of North Carolina and executive director of the White House Transition Project, a scholarly program that tracks appointments. “The notion of the American will — it’s not being thwarted, but it’s slow to come to fruition.”

There's special significance in the inspector general's slot, given that the Administration has "retired" or fired several inspector generals for finding problems that run contrary to Administration assertions; the firings were political in nature.

Moreover, the failure to fill these positions means that key programs lack the stewardship necessary to give programs a chance for success. It also greatly increases the chances for fraud, corruption, and mistakes.

Michelle Malkin gleefully notes the Times report, which completely shreds any notion that this Administration made the greatest transition in history. The Administration has yet to even nominate people for hundreds of positions and the fault rests with no one but the Administration and President Obama. His failure to find people who aren't tax cheats isn't comforting either, although he still utilizes people like Tom Daschle in advisory positions that are outside the nomination process.

It's part of the reason that Obama has proliferated the czar; he can't get people to fill the positions that require nominations, so he's attempting to engage in an end run around the process - to poor effect.