How advise and consent should work.

Here is a columnist who gets and explains how the system should work.

Central to the reason we elect presidents is public confidence in their ability to pick the people to carry out the policies that they enunciate. That is, after all, a major reason voters chose Bush over John Kerry.

Even if political realities did not require presidents to pick supporters to staff their administrations, it would be ludicrous to expect them to tap people who disagreed with them on policy. Moreover, voters made a conscious choice about what kind of people they want in power by voting for Bush.