Obama To Purge Republicans From Civil Service

Scary stuff here: The federal government’s Office of Personnel Management just released a memo detailing that Barack Obama intends to purge Republicans from the civil service. Not only that, he intends to make the purge retroactive for 5 years.

Many political appointees join the civil service after their political appointments expire, usually after the end of administration. When George Bush became President in 2001, a number of Clinton political appointees became civil service employees. As a result, they became subject to civil service hiring and firing rules, which meant they could no longer be replaced simply for having been a Democratic appointee.

The same happened with Bush administration appointees, many who joined in 2004. The very year Obama will reach back to for his purge. The OPM will examine civil service employees who got their start as political appointees in the Bush administration and terminate them. OPM’s alleged rationale is to keep political appointees from “burrowing in,” but agencies would need to have already considered the applicant the best qualified to even reach this new hurdle. From the memo:

In no case may an agency make an appointment of the type described below without written authorization from OPM:

1. The appointment of a current political Schedule A or Schedule C Executive Branch employee or a former political Schedule A or Schedule C Executive Branch employee who held the position within the last five years to a competitive or non-political excepted service position under title 5 of the U.S. Code.

2. The appointment of a current Non-career SES Executive Branch employee or a former Non-career SES Executive Branch employee who held the position within the last five years to a competitive or non-political excepted service position under title 5 of the U.S. Code.

Which party do you think most of those people came from? The Democrats threatened to put Republicans in JAIL when they began firing U.S. Attorneys who happened to be Democrats. U.S. Attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president, and, as such, are fair game for firing. Civil service employees do not serve the president, and it is not legal for these employees to be fired just because they’re Republicans. It is well established anti-discrimination law in the Federal sector – the public (political appointees included) may not be excluded from consideration for federal jobs because of their political affiliation.

Obama’s totalitarian power-grab is insatiable, however. Let the lawsuits begin!

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