"Weiss supporters in the White House and on Wall Street were stunned."

[libdem4life]

9. I agree it's no panacea, but part of the hard right spring you mention I believe is due to the

realities of The Beltway and the best kept secret that The Federal Bureaucracy pretty much runs things.

If you aren't "on the inside", which politicians love to tout and taxpayers go gaga over, newly elected officials get it quick that once in office that's a serious negative and the President is hamstrung by lack of important relationships, thus getting his way, therein. He or she is only there for 4-8 years yet the Bureaucracy lives on forever, death or retirement is a long attrition rate.

I think it's actually a shadow Fourth Branch of the Government, not as a conspiracy theory, but as a necessary evil in order to service/govern so many millions of people. Nor am I a State's Righter, either...as that surely has its downside.

I believe in 20 or so years, the President will be merely a figurehead and elections the opportunity for money to change hands. TPM used the term Oligarchy in a recent article and a Princeton paper ... think it was TPM as well, said we're no longer a Democracy. Then I read about the Koch's Billion Dollar Purchase (or attempt thereof) of the election.

JMO.