WASHINGTON — Want a top job in the Obama administration? Only pack rats need apply, preferably those not packing controversy.Well, I guess I can write off any hopes of a Cabinet post in the Obama administration.
A seven-page questionnaire being sent by the office of President-elect Barack Obama to those seeking cabinet and other high-ranking posts may be the most extensive — some say invasive — application ever.
The questionnaire includes 63 requests for personal and professional records, some covering applicants’ spouses and grown children as well, that are forcing job-seekers to rummage from basements to attics, in shoe boxes, diaries and computer archives to document both their achievements and missteps.
Only the smallest details are excluded; traffic tickets carrying fines of less than $50 need not be reported, the application says. Applicants are asked whether they or anyone in their family owns a gun. They must include any e-mail that might embarrass the president-elect, along with any blog posts and links to their Facebook pages.
The application also asks applicants to “please list all aliases or ‘handles’ you have used to communicate on the Internet.”
And what about that question about guns? Owning a gun is still legal in the United States, so I'm not sure what purpose that question serves other than to weed out anyone who believes the 2nd Amendment means what it says.
Read the rest of the article. The intrusiveness of the vetting process is pretty extreme. It concerns me about the quality of the person that would agree to that level of intrusion into his personal life, let alone anyone who could get past the scrutiny.
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