Richardson Nomination Highlights Vetting Difficulty

Professor Paul Light, an occasional contributor to the Washington Post, on issues during the Presidential transition, highlights the now-withdrawn nomination of Bill Richardson to be Commerce Secretary as an example of the difficulty in vetting nominees to high positions. He calls for increased civil service employees in the vetting process:

Vetters must pore over the information, reading and cross-checking reams of data. This is no small task, especially amid the pressure to fill jobs quickly. The Obama team has set its heart on breaking the record for filling top jobs in the shortest time, but now it has been reminded that speed is often the enemy of thoroughness.

The number of senior-level political jobs has expanded by a fifth since 2001, and as Obama rightly works on rebuilding the civil service ranks at the lower levels of government, he should consider expanding his own personnel process to handle the load.