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{"id":18403,"date":"2016-09-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-09-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=154"},"modified":"2016-09-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2016-09-30T00:00:00","slug":"rooting-out-burrowers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2016\/09\/rooting-out-burrowers\/","title":{"rendered":"Rooting out Burrowers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

S<\/span>everal weeks ago, I devoted my FT column<\/a> to examining the Obama administration\u2019s effort to consolidate its gender-equality gains by hiring attorneys to investigate and prosecute civil rights violations. Obama appointees will burrow in and continue the Obama agenda after he leaves office.<\/p>\n

Evan Osnos\u2019s attempt to imagine Trump\u2019s first term<\/a> turns to this theme. Osnos spoke to Newt Gingrich who \u201ctold me that he is urging Trump to give priority to an obscure but contentious conservative issue\u2014ending lifetime tenure for federal employees. This would also galvanize Republicans and help mend rifts in the Party after a bitter election. \u2018Getting permission to fire corrupt, incompetent, and dishonest workers\u2014that\u2019s the absolute showdown,\u2019 Gingrich said. He assumes that federal employees\u2019 unions would resist, thus producing, in his words, an \u2018ongoing war\u2019 similar to the conflict that engulfed Madison, Wisconsin, in 2011, when Governor Scott Walker moved to limit public-sector employees\u2019 collective-bargaining rights. After five months of protests, and a failed effort to recall the Governor and members of the state senate, Walker largely prevailed. Gingrich predicts that that chaotic dynamic can be brought to Washington. \u2018You have to end the civil-service permanent employment,\u2019 he said. \u2018You start changing that and the public-employee unions will just come unglued.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"