Obama was enough of a student of history to avoid repeating the mistakes of Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton, who came to reform the capital and installed friends from home who did not truly understand it as their top White House aides.
He has installed friends and former staff members to be top officials at the Federal Communications Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, for example, and has directed the administration's response to a variety of legislative proposals that have been adopted or killed over the last eight years.
A new president comes to town and installs friends he trusts, but inevitably some of them wind up burned by the klieg lights and corrosive politics of Washington.
The pastor accused Bishop Grein of forcing her out on trumped charges and installing a friend in her place.
Unions across the city, after years of low morale and stalled contract negotiations, are roaring back to life this election season, excited by the prospect of installing a friend of labor in City Hall when Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg leaves office at the end of the year.
Tommy's "informal" management style and his tendency to install inexperienced friends to run the venture apparently infuriated the government.
The people behind these ventures frequently install their friends and acquaintances in storefronts, while attempting to preserve (or exploit, depending whom you ask) local history.
Then, as director of the governing council's economic and finance committee, he installed his friends and allies in the key posts of oil minister, finance minister, trade minister, governor of the central bank and so on.
One of the defendants, the investment banker and Armstrong's long-time financial backer Thomas Weisel, provided major financial aid to the organisation in the early 2000s and allegedly helped install his friends and associates Steve Johnson and Jim Ochowicz in key roles.
