The "525' are an interesting bunch.

The House of Representatives started out as a two-year part-time job and has now found itself as a full-time career spot (providing you can keep getting rehired every two years, and most do) with a retirement package the envy of Major League Baseball.

The Senate - the "select 100" - is the more elitist of the herd. It's amazing how many of them consider themselves qualified to head a 2.5+ million person executive branch when for the most of them the biggest group they have ever "led" is their own staff of approx 25 persons (and they have an office manager for that!).

The Supreme Court - They just happen to sit at the top of a judicial system with 13 appeals courts under them, and below them 97 District Courts and a slew of special-purpose courts (Veterans Claims, Tax, etc).

And then there's the 8,500 folk who are 'political appointees' filling spopnts ranging from Secretary of the ____ to gopher. Just google up "Plum Book" and see how many departments, independent agencies and commissions there are - the number is staggering.

Come January 2009 and for the next 6 months the "Plum Book" will get completely flushed, and then we get to experience "amateur hour" all over again within the Executive Branch." That's when we are at our most vulnerable.

The Buck may stop at the very top, but there's a lot of change-making going on within the pyramid.