'National Security' Part Of Bush Plan To Gut Civil Services

Helen Thomas -- Congress passed the Civil Service Act in 1883 to end the spoils system, which based federal employment on nepotism and cronyism.

The bad old days may be returning. I note the lack of competitive bids on some government contracts to rebuild Iraq and the appearance of favoritism in the administration's decisions to award contracts to politically influential companies.

John Gage, President of the AFL-CIO's American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), sees a trend. He predicts "a return to the spoils system for politically connected corporations and campaign contributors."

Gage said the moves to privatize the government payroll were a "grand slam" blow to the Civil Service system and organized labor.

Beyond what looks like a bow to big business, Karl Rove, the president's political guru, tipped the administration's hand on why the administration thinks federal workers are suspect.

In an interview in The New Yorker magazine on May 12, Rove said: "Bigger government strengthens the Democratic Party.

It generates federal employees who will mostly vote Democratic ... conversely, smaller government helps the Republicans."

And if the message hasn't sunk in, the president has more Labor Day good news for them.

Citing a national emergency, he plans to hold government civilian pay raises to 2 percent instead a 2.7 percent. Also ruled out was a proposed salary hike to make it comparable with the private pay scales in certain geographical areas.