Restored in Washington: Respect for public service

Check out an article in Business Week about how things are changing in Washington, and the blog, which fills in the rest:

I was impressed by the Obamans respect for the people who work in government. The Bush administration treated government workers like lazy dolts—setting rigid goals for them and outsourcing government functions to private industry as much as possible. (Do a Google search on “Halliburton” to see how well that worked out for the taxpayer.) In contrast, Zients helps government people set their own goals and provides some of the essential tools they need to accomplish them. Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist and good-government maven, explains the shift: “In the past, government workers were told that government is the problem and nothing was expected of them. Now there’s a new message: You do matter. Now, get stuff done.