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What's with Obama's choice of old-time Clinton
cronies and recycled Washington insiders to run the
transition to his new politics of change?
Can't the anti-Washington-insiders and the
president-elect find anyone who isn't a Beltway
has-been?
Judging by the appointments to his transition
committee and leaks about possible top staff and Cabinet
choices, Obama appears to be practicing the politics of
status quo, not the politics of change.
Obama based his innovative campaign on an emphatic
and convincing commitment to change the culture of
Washington and bring in new people, new ideas, and new
ways of doing business.
But now, Obama has definitely changed his tune. As
president-elect, he's brought back the old Washington
hacks, party regulars, and Clinton sycophants that he so
frequently disparaged. Like Jimmy Carter, the last
president who ran as an outsider, Obama has reached out
to the same old folks who dominate the Democratic Party
and represent the status quo.
His transition committee looks like a reunion of the
Clinton administration. No new ideas of how to reform
the system there. The chairman, John Podesta, was
Clinton's chief of staff. He presided over outrageous
last-minute pardons and his style is strictly
inside-the-Beltway and make-no-waves.
Then there's Carol Browner, Clinton's competent
former EPA administrator who became the consummate
Washington insider. She's Madeline Albright's partner
and recently married mega-lobbyist and former
Congressman Tom Downey. During the uproar over Dubai
taking over U.S. ports, Browner brought Downey to meet
with Sen. Chuck Schumer to plead Dubai's case. Downey
was paid half a million dollars to push Dubai's
position. He's also a lobbyist for Fannie Mae, paid half
a million to try to cover their rears on the subprime
mortgage mess. Is this change?
Federico Pena was Clinton's secretary of
transportation and of energy. The president felt he was
unduly soft on Air Florida after a crash and lost
confidence in him. Now he's back as a transition
committee member.
Bill Daley, Clinton's former secretary of commerce
and the brother of the mayor of Chicago, is the epitome
of the old Democratic establishment. Clinton appointed
him to the Fannie Mae board and his son worked as a
lobbyist for the agency. Aren't these the kind of folks
that Obama ran against?
Larry Summers, president of Harvard and former
Clinton secretary of the treasury is not exactly an
outsider either. He's also alienated more than a few
with his bizarre suggestion that women may be
genetically inferior to men in math and science.
Susan Rice, assistant secretary of state under
Clinton advised John Kerry and Mike Dukakis. Does that
tell you enough?
Obama has named one of his big bundlers -- Michael
Froman, an executive at Citigroup. Is this supposed to
symbolize change?
Obama's choice of a spokesperson for the transition
is also surprising; she is definitely not the face of
reason and new politics. Stephanie Cutter is the brash
and combative former Clinton, Kerry, and Ted Kennedy
mouthpiece. The liberal DailyKos.com once described
Cutter as "a moron to the nth degree" when she tried
unsuccessfully to force The New York Times' Adam
Nagourney to treat her unsolicited e-mail criticizing
Howard Dean as "background" without mentioning her name.
Speaking of brash, Rahm Emanuel, the new White House
chief of staff, makes Cutter look timid. Rahm is also a
former Clinton White House staffer -- and a very
obnoxious one. He spent his White House years leaking to
The Washington Post whenever he didn't like what the
president was doing. Even Bill Clinton stopped trusting
him. Any hopes of Obama keeping his commitment to reach
across the aisle would go right out the window with
Rahm's appointment. Instead of extending a hand to the
opposition, it would be like raising just one finger.
And Rahm's strident demeanor laced with the 'F' word in
every sentence will do little to elevate the bipartisan
dialogue in Washington.
Christopher Edley, another member of the transition
team, is dean of the Berkeley Law School. He was a
member of the U.S. Civil Rights Commission under
Clinton, and his wife, Maria Echaveste was Clinton's
deputy chief of staff.
Transition committee staffer Christine Varney was a
federal trade commissioner under Clinton and worked in
the White House.
Throughout the early debates, Obama criticized
Hillary Clinton as part of the inside-the Beltway
establishment that needed to go. But now he's reaching
out to these exact same folks. Some change.
© 2008 Dick Morris & Eileen McGann
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