In this administration, jobs are given to the loyal.

Sure, everybody doles out rewards. Even in the private sector, bosses hire in part on whether you can "fit in with the team," so it's not as if any political leader is going to hire someone who explicitly makes a point of running opposite to his or her values. As long as the people you're rewarding are loyal and competent, then you have no problems. Or they're loyal and nothing major happens, you have no problems.

The problems come when your loyal incompetents FUBAR big time. Like, say, advise you to fight the wrong war, then screw up the "peace."

 

This is my favorite part:

"O’Beirne’s staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade."

No, everybody doesn't do that.

UPDATE - My second-favorite part:
"I'm not here for the Iraqis," one staffer noted to a reporter over lunch. "I'm here for George Bush."

 

Including military leadership... General Anthony Zinni: fired after saying the U.S. would need several hundred thousands in post-war Iraq.

 

Some more than others

 

This isn't filling ambassadorships or putting your fundraisers in as the 15th undersecretary of agriculture. This is handing our one shot at rebuilding a country we destroyed, allegedly to save it and promote democracy, over to a bunch of Bible-bashing, homeschooled well-connected former embryos who had no expertise in what they were trying to do.

 

All this stuff is starting to ooze out...there was an LA Times reporter on NPR last week, talking about a book he wrote about the Iraqi rebuilding. All these fuck-ups were running around with their hands out, trying to line up contracts for themselves and their buddies. Look, I understand you want to help your guys, but put 'em in places where they can't hurt anyone. And there aren't decent business executives or retired military types who are Republicans and competent enough to help with rebuilding? Don't give me that shit that you have to get homeschooling moms.
God, I hope we elect someone who will appoint decent, competent people, not a bunch of half-assed ideologues. The Democrats are fucking up so much right now by not making hay about this issue.

 

http://powerlineblog.com/archives/015304.php

 

I seem to recall Bill Clinton appointing Hillary Clinton to do an overhaul of the nation's healthcare system. Hillary's qualification was that she was Bill Clinton's wife (no medical background to speak of whatsoever).

JFK appointed RFK as Attorney General because he was JFK's campaign manager and Joe Sr. ordered JFK to do it.

Yeah - this stuff never happened in the past (but that doesn't make it right).

 

In defence of RFK as Attorney General, he was as qualified for the post as were many who have held it since. He was certainly more qualified than the likes of Janet Reno.

 

what qualifications does it take to be considered for the supreme court?

 

You can't seriously believe this is the same thing.
First of all, both JFK and Clinton got substantial heat for the examples you cite, and the Clinton health plan got torpedoed, dishonestly, but out in the open, and, anyway, RFK had a long career as a government lawyer, as did HRC, who also worked in the private sector (And save all the bullshit from the Arkansas Project, please.). There were at least some pre-existing credentials.
Here, after abandoning the Future of Iraq Project that people of both parties spent a decade or so developing, the House of Fredo handed the reconstruction of a country we destroyed as part of a) the administration's primary foreign-policy intiiative, and b) the central part of the World War III Of Civilizations, over to a bunch of people whose only apparent qualifications were that they were anti-choice and shuffled papers for obscure GOP congresscritters. We had to get Iraq exactly right, and these people didn't give enough of a damn about it to do so. We will be paying for this for decades.

 

JFK did NOT want Bobby as AG. But Joe (who was Jack's brains in foreign affairs, btw) told
him to appoint Bobby and like it.