Obama continues to fill his staff with ex-Clinton-era folks... including the Clintons -Which makes me wonder...
Does Obama not know enough people?
Maybe he just doesn't know anyone in government?
Or maybe all his buddies in Chicago and Springfield don't qualify. Maybe that's why he has such a massive application. You know, the one where if you've ever done anything naughty you're automatically tossed out... unless you already have a house in D.C.
Axlerod doesn't count either. He's an ex-Chicago Tribune reporter turned-consultant who hadn't had much 'win' until Obama. You can't count Pharaoh Daley as a 'hard win'. So there's one person in for Chicago.
Former senator Tom Daschle, a seasoned veteran of the partisan political wars Obama has vowed to end is set to become secretary of health and human services.
Eric Holder, a former Clinton-era Justice Department official is being lined up as Attorney General in the Obama administration. Just ask about the Mark Rich pardon.
Obama's chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, a former Clinton White House aide, and Illinois politic insider.
Clinton energy secretary Bill Richardson is being touted as commerce secretary. Well, they gotta give him SOMETHING since he lost the VeeP spot and also Sec. of State. He even delivered New Mexico.
This line-up makes Obama's promise for "Change we Can Believe In" look pretty damn hollow. And, as I've sarcastically said before - it's Change, in the stationary.
"Apparently, Washington outsiders need not apply in the Obama Administration," said Republican National Committee spokesman Alex Conant.
"Barack Obama's cabinet is starting to resemble a Clinton reunion. His appointments so far have been a disappointment for Americans hoping to see some fresh faces in Washington."
I'm not saying (at all) that he should keep the Neo-Cons of the Bush Administration - but come on... are there even two or three people in there that DIDN'T work in the Clinton White House? But Bush took people who worked for him in Texas. He had a whole team.
4 comments:
Daley's Brother Bill is part of the Obama Transition team'... you remember Bill from the Al Gore vote snatch in FL.
He was also Secretary of Commerce under Bill.
So what does it take to make you happy capn?
when I voted for Change, I was voting for NO MORE NEOCONS, NO MORE BUSH/CHENEY policies. If I wanted only people with no serious political experience, I would have voted for Palin for President.
If you want to complain about Obama, I don’t want to stop you, but wouldn’t it make more sense to complain if he or the people he picks actually do something you don’t like? I was all over Obama when he voted for the FISA bill, and if he tries to pull that same crap again I will be first in line to open up a full can of whoop-ass on him (I only used an ounce of whoop-ass previously because there was an election at stake and the alternative was so much worse).
I guess you just don't meet enough qualified people to run a cabinet level position when you're a Community Organizer?
Presidents Clinton and Lincoln similarly appointed what Doris Kearns Goodwin has famously called a "team of rivals" to staff their Cabinets and administrations.
Lincoln named all of his opponents for the Republican presidential nomination to senior posts in his Cabinet and Clinton staffed his White House and much of his Cabinet with ambassadors to other wings of the Democratic Party.
George Stephanopoulos was his ambassador to House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, Harold Ickes his emissary to organized labor, Al Gore his delegate to the environmentalists, Leon Panetta his liaison with congressional committee chairmen, Ron Brown his man in the black community, and Henry Cisneros as his go-between with the Hispanic community.
In each case, the president acted to bolster his ties with the factions of his own party because he feared how he would fare with his party in total control of Congress. Neither the Republicans of 1861 nor the Democrats of 1992 saw the president from their own party as their natural leaders.
Lincoln's colleagues had chosen him only after a deadlock between the two front-runners had paralyzed the convention. Clinton got the nomination only after Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York, the party's favorite, had pulled out. Each man was elected with barely 40 percent of the vote. So each felt constrained to share power with their rivals.
While Obama was not the early favorite of his party, he does not need to defer so ostentatiously to those who fought him for the nomination. His general election mandate clearly entitled him to name who he pleased. But he has chosen to nominate men and women with no loyalty to him and no real stake in his future.
And standing above all his appointees like a president-in-exile, is Hillary Clinton.
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