They must be without sin

The Senate must confirm 1,200 people whom the White House has nominated to fill important positions.  The White House has taken a long time to make nominations and the Senate has taken perhaps a longer time to conduct hearings for the nominees.  It's just another indication of how far we have sunk.  

The NY Times points out some of the vacancies:

John Kerry is practically home alone at the State Department, toiling without permanent assistant secretaries of state for the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Africa. At the Pentagon, a temporary personnel chief is managing furloughs for 800,000 civilian employees. There has not been a director of the Internal Revenue Service since last November, and it was only on Thursday that President Obama announced a nomination for commerce secretary after the job was open for nearly a year. 

One of the worst backlogs is at the State Department, where nearly a quarter of the most senior posts are not filled, including those in charge of embassy security and counterterrorism. The Treasury Department is searching for a new No. 2, the Department of Homeland Security is missing its top two cybersecurity officials and about 30 percent of the top jobs at the Commerce Department are still vacant, including that of chief economist.  

It's a hell of a way to run a country.