Even as the Obama administration weathers the fallout from a politicized Internal Revenue Service targeting conservative non-profit organizations, President Obama is moving full-speed ahead on politicizing non-partisan agencies. His new nominee for the Office of Personnel Management – the agency charged with managing federal job postings and setting governmentwide hiring procedures, conducting background investigations for employees, and “defend[ing] merit systems in Federal civil service” – is the former political director of his presidential campaign, Katherine Archuleta.
President Obama explained:
“Katherine brings to the Office of Personnel Management broad experience and a deep commitment to recruiting and retaining a world-class workforce for the American people. I am grateful Katherine has agreed to serve, and I look forward to working with her in the coming years.”
Under President Bush, the two heads of the OPM were Kay Cole James, a former Virginia Secretary of Health and Human Services and dean of Regent University school of government; James was convention secretary for the 1996 Republican National Convention. But her tenure brought heavy scrutiny from the media, who suggested that her appointments were politically motivated. Her successor, Linda M. Springer, was considered apolitical and was approved unanimously by the Senate.
Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).
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