The greatest internal threat to our country

Some would say that terrorism is the greatest threat to our country, others would say the financial crisis, the unchecked power of the Presidency, the abandoning of civil liberties, our foreign policy, or Dick Cheney hopped up on mescaline and methamphetamine stalking the streets with a rifle and a license to kill. Others would just laugh off these so called 'threats' and point to our greatest national horror and potential for crisis: the competent, experienced, diverse, and strong willed individuals that Obama has selected as advisers. You don't even know the kind of trouble these assholes could get us into.

President-elect Barack Obama is assembling a new and influential cadre of counselors just steps from the Oval Office whose power to direct domestic policy will rival, if not exceed, the authority of his Cabinet.

Presidents have long strived to centralize influence in the White House, often to the frustration of their Cabinet secretaries. But not since Richard M. Nixon tried to abolish the majority of his Cabinet has a president gone so far in attempting to build a West Wing-based clutch of advisers with a mandate to cut through -- or leapfrog -- the traditional bureaucracy.

Obama's emerging "super-Cabinet" is intended to ensure that his domestic priorities -- health reform, the environment and urban affairs -- don't get mired in agency red tape or brushed aside by the ongoing economic meltdown and international crises. Half a dozen new White House positions have been filled by well-known leaders with experience navigating Washington turf wars.

But some see the potential for chaos within the administration.

Damn his eyes! How dare he make sure that his priorities like universal health care don't get mired in bureaucratic red tape or ignored as the focus turns to the raging tire fire that is the economy. Making sure priorities get passed......that way leads to madness. And nominating experienced hands who know how to navigate the corridors of power and through turf wars? What the fuck was he thinking?

Worse yet are his plans to try to co-ordinate vast policies that span a myriad of agencies, like environmental policy or health care policy, with one "quarterback" who will help manage and implement the larger goals with interdepartmental co-operation. Someday we'll look over this smoldering wreckage of planning, co-ordination, integration, implementation, and focus and wonder......why didn't anyone sound the alarm bells? Why couldn't things have been done in the opposite way, like during the Bush Administration? Well, you warned us Washington Post. You did.