I think Matthew Yglesias misses the point about the President's desire to exclude standard civil service protections from the Homeland Security Agency. Last I checked, he also wanted to exclude it from FOIA and Whistleblower Protection. Let's consider the powers and budget this agency would have, combined with the complete lack of public oversight or whistleblower protection for its employees, exemption from FOIA, the classified nature of just about everything it does, and a domestic rather than international jurisdiction.
Call me cynical, but...
UPDATE: Here is the forgotten link.
Also, I just wanted to make clear that I think this has nothing to do with the conservative knee-jerk reaction to employee protections, and everything to do with simply having complete control of a domestic spying agency without concern for leaks or reprisals.
