On May 4, the administration borrowed the president of the National Academy of Public Administration to stand in for the deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget until the administration can find someone willing to fill the most important Senate-confirmed management post. Robert O'Neill will serve in the OMB post for up to 120 days. These are just the most recent signs of an appointments apocalypse. Every administration since 1960 has faced increasing delays in winning confirmation of its nominees, creating a rising tide of vacancies in the senior ranks of government. Short of a miracle in which candidates say yes sooner and the Senate confirmation python digests them faster, the Bush administration will not be fully in place until next February or March.
Some delays involve red tape.
Background checks by the White House Office of Presidential Personnel, FBI and Office of Government Ethics take longer than ever. Other delays are political. Convinced that a bad appointment hurts more than a good one helps, presidential recruiters have tightened the screws, forcing candidates for even the most trivial political posts to endure a thicket of review. Meanwhile, the Senate appears to know no limits when it comes to using legislative holds to extract concessions from the president. Still other delays involve the growing difficulties in recruiting talented Americans to fill the top jobs.