[pierrem15]

Bush has been utterly unable to gain control over the permanent government, especially the CIA and the State Department, both of which feed information (real or fabricated) to the media to damage the President's policies.

If the elected government cannot control the permanent government, then we no longer really live in a republic.

Instead, it's an odd kind of 'moronocracy' where the elite is almost exclusively composed of the miseducated and the morally depraved.

[3AngelaD]

Yup. I have a friend who has dealings with the EPA, which the Bushies have been trying to reform since taking office. He was told by one of the members of the “permanent” government that regardless of Congressional or administration policy, the agency was going to do what its civil service drones wanted to do, they were just waiting for Bush to leave office and Congress to change. And they had all the time in the world.