Staff work at high levels of government is tedious, ponderous work. Because the wheels grind so slowly, its easy to become frustrated with the slowness of decisions. That frustration is especially accented with two factors from the private sector. First is the "ready, fire, aim" pace of business today. The thing to keep in mind is in business, usually decisions are such that if you make a mistake you can make a course correction as easily and as you made a decision the first wrong decision. Not so in government, especially in matters of national defense. The second factor that makes government different from business and the private sector is the ownership factor. When you own a business, it's your business. You can do anything you want because you own it. You assume all the risk. Once again, in government, the dynamics are not the same (especially with national defense).

In government, especially our government, you need good staff work and the interaction of the legislative branch with the executive branch to make sure that you shield yourself from unintended consequences.

This program from PBS' Frontline clearly illustrates that these principles have been deliberately ignored, even trampled by the Bush Administration. I have said before that you should not reward bad behavior when you vote and this is clearly an example of this.

Watch for yourself.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/cheney/view/