Dick Cheney's son in law, Richard Perry, is General Counsel of OMB (the most powerful executive agency in government) according to a recent poster. Cheney's daughter is a deputy secretary of state, responsible for developing policy about weapons of mass destruction and prone to issuing proclamations about Iran. Who knows, Lynne Cheney, who headed the National Endowment for the Humanities in the Reagan years, may be pulling down another public salary these days too.
This isn't a partisan issue. The wife of Tom Foley (D-WA) ran his Congressional office for years, including the time he served as Speaker of the House.
Instead of independent thinkers in essential positions such OMB and the Department of State, right now we have mouthpieces for one most reclusive and reactionary public figures in recent American life. The situation invites abuse, conflict of interest, and repression of policy debate in government agencies. Isn't it time, in the interests of good government, to put a stop to this nepotism?