Whoa: State Department's entire senior management team resigns

This is going to be one of those stories that's either awesome or horrifying, depending on your predilections. If you're a creature of Washington who believes in the sage wisdom of "nonpartisan" career bureaucrats, then you're horrified that these fine, experienced public servants feel they can't serve under the wild-eyed lunatic Donald Trump. If you're interested in draining the swamp, on the other hand, it's hard to get more drainy than this:

The State Department's entire senior level of management officials resigned Wednesday, The Washington Post reported. Patrick Kennedy, the agency's undersecretary for management who had served in the role for nine years, resigned unexpectedly along with three of his top officials Assistant Secretary of State for Administration Joyce Anne Barr, Assistant Secretary of State for Consular Affairs Michele Bond and Ambassador Gentry O. Smith, director of the Office of Foreign Missions, resigned as well, the report said. All of them served under both Democratic and Republican administrations. They join a number of other officials who have departed since President Trump took office last week.

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Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Gregory Starr retired, and director of the Bureau of Overseas Building Operations Lydia Muniz left on Friday. “It’s the single biggest simultaneous departure of institutional memory that anyone can remember, and that’s incredibly difficult to replicate,” said David Wade, who served as State Department chief of staff under Secretary of State John Kerry.

Put me squarely in the awesome camp. The State Department bureaucracy - the same people who tried slow-walking the release of Hillary's e-mails until after the election - are very much aligned with the United Nations on Israel, and with the "international community" in its disdain for anything the U.S. does to put its own interests ahead of the oh-so-sensitive inclinations of despots and dictators across the globe. No matter who the president is, the State Department always seems to lean against anything the U.S. might consider doing that would upset the international apple cart. And that's not for no reason. Secretaries of State from one administration to the next have quickly discovered that their own bureaucracies are difficult to tame, and are very good at wagging the dogs that are supposed to be their bosses. The permanent State Department bureaucracy also has a well-earned reputation as prolific anonymous leakers, especially if a Republican president seems interested in pursuing a policy agenda that differs from their own. But presidents have not tended to stand up these folks, regardless of party . . . until now. Rex Tillerson isn't even formally confirmed yet, but something must have happened that let the permanent bureaucracy know the Trump Administration would not play pattycake with them the way other presidents have. Is it possible that draining the swamp is as simple as telling the swamp creatures their nonsense will no longer be tolerated, and show them that you mean it?