And don't think that just because these are assistants and undersecretaries that they are in any way less important than judges or cabinet secretaries. Each manages a specific region or facet of a department's duties, and are often better informed and more in control of the day-to-day than his or her cabinet-level superiors.

The real problem with these nominations is how much of the devil is hiding in the detail. It's easy to single out a guy like John Ashcroft for criticism, but what about seemingly inoffensive characters who just happen to be industry executives? As one analyst put it, "who better to know how the business runs than those who have run the business?"

Putting aside the fact that the situation is more like letting the cop guard the donut shop, there are some very specific nominations to be concerned with. Take that of Gordon R. England, Bush's nominee for secretary of the Navy and, until recently, the executive vice president of the General Dynamics Corporation. The company is the Pentagon's largest shipbuilding contractor, claiming among its divisions the Electric Boat Corporation and the Bath Iron Works. The latter currently builds Arleigh Burke class destroyers, which Bush has recently promised to sell to Taiwan, and is competing to build the Burke's replacement, the DD-21 class destroyer. The problem is, England's future boss-in-waiting, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, has recommended cutting the DD-21 program. England will be walking into a situation that tests his loyalty to the country against that to his old employer and, more than likely, his own wallet.

Or take James R. Roche, a corporate vice president for Northrop Grumman and Bush's nominee for secretary of the Air Force. Northrop Grumman is the manufacturer of the B-2 stealth bomber, something the company is pushing the government to buy a whole lot more of. The Defense Department had been slow to warm up to the idea; will it be a surprise if, after Roche is in place, that attitude changes?

Or, finally, take Linda Fisher, a former lobbyist for Monsanto and the pick for deputy administrator of the EPA, one of just several industry leaders and representatives chosen for environment-related posts. Fisher's work for Monsanto included, most recently, directing its government affairs office. Monsanto, in turn, is actively seeking curbs on government oversight in the production of genetically engineered crops, in which it has invested heavily.

In fact, of all the myriad positions open at the Department of the Interior and the EPA, Bush did not select a single nominee affiliated with conservation groups or the environmental movement (he was considering John Turner of the Conservation Fund for assistant secretary of the Interior, but backed down under pressure from the American Conservative Union).

As Maria Weidner, policy advocate for the Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, told the New York Times, "They are lawyers and lobbyists who built their careers by helping industry get out of environmental regulations. Now, assuming they're confirmed, they will be doing the same thing, only the taxpayers will be paying for it."

To be fair, it's overly simplistic and crude to say that simply because someone was in the past affiliated with a company, that person will necessarily continue to promote the company's interests at the expense of the country's once in office. But the broader implication is still true: namely, that these nominees come from backgrounds that will shape the way they approach problems; they will look at military procurement with a sympathy for, if not a financial interest in, the way such decisions affect defense contractors, and they will consider environmental regulations not as improvements in quality of life but as costs to be weighed against their impacts on corporate profits.

Forty years ago, departing President Eisenhower warned the nation of the growing, covert influence of the military-industrial complex. Under the Bush Administration, however, we have seen the expansion of industry's influence into all facets of the executive branch, and it's happening at a rate so dizzying and in a manner so low-key that the average citizen has no idea what's going on, until it's too late.

E-mail Clay Risen at risenc@yahoo.com.