Top spy job is no plum

Introduction

President-Elect Barack Obama has been slow to name his choice for the government’s top intelligence job, director of national intelligence. Maybe that’s because the position hasn’t been advertised widely enough: There was no entry for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in the government’s “Plum Book,” the quadrennial listing of political appointments available for a new administration.

A spokesman for the Office of Personnel Management, which provides the information that’s published in the Plum Book, confirmed to PaperTrail that the ODNI was omitted “due to a mix-up.” The OPM official stressed, however, that months ago it provided to the Obama and McCain campaigns an official list of presidentially appointed positions, including the Director of National Intelligence and several others within the director’s office.

So, if you have extensive experience in the federal intelligence community, now’s the time to submit your application online to the Obama-Biden transition team.