I think you've (possibly unintentionally) hit the nail on the head by tagging loyalty. The reason that so few positions are filled is because Trump is having a hard time finding enough people who will be more loyal to him personally than to the job, the department, the government, and the country. He has to some degree substituted people (e.g. Devos) who do not give a shit about him but who have such an overriding agenda that they'll be loyal to whoever gives them big power levers. But the supply of those is (thank the gods) also limited.
I think the next test will be to see who he appoints as FBI chief. There are a handful of good candidates (including Rosenstein, who may get a sop for the level of disgrace Trump has visited on him but I expect him to say no because he wants Sessions' job and there's a good chance Sessions won't last) and there are one or two clearly awful candidates who may get the nod because they're loyalists. I can't wait for this one...
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Date: 2017-05-19 09:22 pm (UTC)I think the next test will be to see who he appoints as FBI chief. There are a handful of good candidates (including Rosenstein, who may get a sop for the level of disgrace Trump has visited on him but I expect him to say no because he wants Sessions' job and there's a good chance Sessions won't last) and there are one or two clearly awful candidates who may get the nod because they're loyalists. I can't wait for this one...