Where Prescription Drugs and Doctor's Appointments Don't Mix

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K en Johnson, senior vice president for communications and public affairs at the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the giant drug lobby, is trying to clamp down on what he sees as staff abuse of administrative leave.

So he sent his 20 staffers a sharply worded e-mail ordering everyone to get approval well in advance if they want to take some time off. "In the future," he said, "if you send me an email at 1:00 pm. saying you have a doctor's appointment at 3:00 pm, you had better be dying or it will count toward your vacation time."

"Requests to attend to family matters," he continued in the Oct. 2 missive, "or other personal matters, religious holidays and anything of a similar nature must also be approved in advance. Additionally, all vacation requests must continue to be submitted in advance as well."

Johnson, asked about his unusual management style, said the company's human resources department had already "told me that wasn't the appropriate way to word it, but they understand my dark sense of humor."

Johnson said the e-mail was sparked by his having seen an aide walk into a nearby department store. But when he inquired as to the aide's whereabouts, he was told the fellow was at a doctor's appointment.

"In retrospect, I violated my own cardinal rule never to put it in an e-mail," Johnson said. "I should have just gone in and ball-and-chained the person to his desk."

"I push my people pretty hard some times, but the tone was meant to be a jest. Obviously someone didn't take it that way. I have never denied anyone's request for personal leave for any reason," he said, "vacation, religious holiday or just time off to get away from me."

Which isn't easy with a ball and chain.

Security and Numbers

Should Barack Obama be lucky -- or unlucky -- enough to win the presidency, he's going to find the transition process a lot easier than Bill Clinton or George W. Bush did. Both predecessors inherited a government run by the opposition party, obliging them to clear out most anyone left on Jan. 20 and then refill several hundred key jobs as fast as they could.

That meant waiting for FBI clearance checks, with delays of up to two months, before people could be named to top posts or have their names sent to the Senate for confirmation.

Obama would inherit similar circumstances, of course. But the 2004 Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act, passed as part of the post-9/11 Commission reforms, allows both candidates, after they are formally nominated, to submit an unspecified number of requests for security clearances for prospective transition-team members "who will have a need for access to classified" info.

That obviously applies to folks working on transition teams involving national security -- the Pentagon, the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence agencies. But it's fuzzy enough to sweep in many more who'll be involved in the Department of Health and Human Services (biochem and all that), Transportation, Treasury, and the Justice Department -- along with the White House itself. It could include chiefs of staff, counsels and others who might need the clearance.