Is Michael Brown available for the SecDef gig?

Trent Lott, best known for his vocal support of Strom Thurmond's segregationist presidential bid in 2002, moved back up the Republican food chain, beating out Lamar Alexander for the position of minority whip. (Keep in mind that he was voted in by his fellow senators.)

Ken Tomlinson, best known for mismanaging the Public Broadcasting Corporation and attempting to turn it into a propaganda arm of the GOP/personal slush fund for friends, is also movin' on up

President Bush on Tuesday renominated the chairman of the agency that directs U.S. overseas broadcasts even though the nomination has been stalled in the Senate amid allegations of misconduct.

Kenneth Y. Tomlinson was nominated again as chairman of the Broadcasting Board of Governors and for a term on the board expiring Aug. 13, 2007. The board oversees Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Radio and TV Marti, broadcasting initiatives in the Middle East and other nonmilitary U.S. broadcasting overseas.

In September, a spokeswoman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said senators did not plan to act on Bush's nomination of Tomlinson in January 2005 while a government investigation of his activities was under way.

Oh, yes, it gets better. Not only is the administration trying to game the system and keep anti-UN hothead John Bolton in his post without Senate confirmation, but Bush is re-nominating four judges so out there that even Republican senators are getting queasy:

As the Wall Street Journal piece points out, it's an unusual move after all that smiley-faced talk of bipartisanship. Looks like reactionary days are here again-- and just a week after the elections.