The truly amusing thing about the Obama vetting process.

It is not that, as Andrew Bolt notes, that the process has been so flawed to date that it’s fair to use the phrase “spivs and chiselers” without exaggerating. Very Commonwealth-y, but not exaggerating.

It is not that, as Gawker’s Owen Thomas notes, that it’s now come out that new chief vetter Gregory Craig’s wife herself apparently hasn’t been paying her business taxes, to the point where there’s now allegedly an investigation going on about that.

(Both links H/T Glenn Reynolds)

It is not even that the first reaction that everybody had – including you! Admit it – to hearing that Gov. Sebelius got the nod for HHS Secretary was “Hm. I wonder whether she’s paid her taxes.”

Nope. The funny part is that this process isn’t going to stop for months.

Vacancies abound in crucial US posts
Obama vetting policy slows appointments

WASHINGTON – As President Obama rolls out one of the most ambitious agendas in US history, federal agencies are struggling to administer hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of new projects and to enact sweeping policy changes with a mere handful of senior staff members in place, in part due to an increasingly tough vetting policy initiated by Obama himself.

Only about 70 people have been formally nominated to fill the roughly 500 senior posts in the Defense, State, Treasury, and Education departments and dozens of other government agencies, according to White House records. Dozens of nominations are still pending as FBI and White House officials scrub potential nominees’ tax returns, financial ties, and former activities in government.

You have to wonder why they’re still bothering.  I mean, it’d be one thing if the process was producing people who were paying their taxes, not up to their eyeballs in pay-for-play, living with lobbyists, or avoiding being in violation of ethics law.  But it’s not.  It’s not even coming close.  So they might as well junk it as a bad deal and at least fill up the slots.  Let me put it another way: there’s a quote from the movie War Games. It was made by General Beringer, and some vestigial sense of politeness is inexplicably dictating that I not reproduce it here.

But I’m betting that you can guess what it is anyway.

Moe Lane

Crossposted to RedState.