Complexity

I was talking to one of my editors yesterday about the challenges of covering the executive branch, and chief among them we identified the simple fact that the executive branch, infinitely more so than Congress or the Judiciary, is REALLY big and really complicated. I think if you're not covering the operations of the agencies, it's easy to forget that, which is why I'm often amused when folks I know who write about other things are surprised to discover, for example, that there are a ton of political appointees and it takes a long time to get them in place. But sometimes that turns around on me as well; as much as I skip from agency to agency, there are a whole lot of places I've never written about just because I haven't had time to get to them. Case in point: the Patent and Trademark Office apparently desperately needs new leadership to arrive soon to deal with mounting crises. Who knew?