I just came across a St. Louis Post-Dispatch Op-Ed from last week, which provides an interesting analysis of the regulatory policy officer recently created under Bush's new executive order. The E.O. creates a new politically appointed position within each agency, the regulatory policy officer, who would ensure the White House's regulatory agenda was carried out in the agencies. The Post-Dispatch editors compare the RPO to the zampoliti who "enforced party discipline" in Soviet military units. How odd that now, 15 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, the concept of the political officer has returned - and in Washington of all places. . . . These regulatory zampoliti will be political appointees operating outside the civil service chain of command, charged with making sure that the agencies don't stray from the president's policies. . . . Despite friends in high places, business interests complained that down in the bowels of the bureaucracy, pointy-headed regulators still had too much power. Bush's order will give political appointees the final say over the rules and guidance documents set forth by regulators. It might sound cynical, but considering Bush's recent attempts to usurp the Senate's role in political appointments by giving failed-nominee Susan Dudley an advisory position, it's probably not too far from the truth.