Quote of the Day: Government at War edition

But as one who can enjoy only the distorted view of a victim is obliged to report, once the calamity of Pearl Harbor had registered, Washington most resembled that crisis in the old Keystone comedies when the resting firemen, grown amiable on undisturbed sessions of beer and games of pinochle, are electrified by the alarm and, diving headlong down the greasy pole, start to clomp importantly in every part of town ... 

In 1917, the city had 38,000 government workers.  In February 1942, it had close to a quarter million.  And in spite of the pawky fun that has been made of this bureaucracy, it was the Secretariat of America's war and might be led or disciplined but could not be dissolved.

- Alistair Cooke, The American Home Front 1941-1942

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose ...