The partisan way is to appoint your friends and contributors, and then allow the professionals to show them, on a map, where the country is and wish them luck. Let's compare the first wave of Bush appointees with those of that well-known bipartisan, Bill Clinton. And so it goes. Makes you wonder why we even bother to train diplomats. But Foreign Service Officers, especially those who are non-political, or bipartisan, have little clout in this town, so the tone is quiet indeed.
Federal judges are another matter.
Washington is about to explode on that one. Bush's first district court nominees are expected to be announced soon. But the Democrats have already made it clear they are prepared to fight them one by one, or not allow the Senate to confirm any of them. They are making a point. That right, which goes back to the presidency of George Washington, is not in the law but has often been honored by custom.