We already knew that the Democrats getting back Congress in 2006 resulted in the drastic change of… a lot of career Democrats getting their old committee chairs back; and now that Barack Obama has won the election, we get to see the drastic change of… a lot of career Democrats going back to work. Via Hot Air Headlines:
Obama gets the Clinton band back together
Here’s how you can tell the campaign is over and the transition has begun: Barack Obama’s aides now wear suits and ties, their desks are in the Federal Building on 6th Street in Washington, D.C.—and Clintonites are everywhere.
Obama’s victory in the general election produced what his primary campaign couldn’t: A swift merger of the Clinton Wing of the Democratic Party with the Illinois Senator’s self-styled insurgency. The merger began, during the campaign, in the policy apparatus—which is now rapidly becoming the governing apparatus.
To give you an idea:Thirty-one of the 47 people so far named to transition or staff posts have ties to the Clinton administration, including all but one of the members of his 12-person Transition Advisory Board and both of his White House staff choices.
Most of those appointees weren’t West Wing heavy-hitters, but lower-profile policy hands like former Deputy Secretary of Defense John White and former State Department official Wendy Sherman. They include former deputies to National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin, Defense Secretary William Perry, and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and some currently work at consultancies run by those Clinton administration principals.
Now, in any other Democratic politician this would be unremarkable: after all, President-elect Obama needs to govern, and it’s either Clinton-era staffers or Carter-era ones if he wants people with experience. And, obviously, Carter-era staffers are pretty much automatically suspect, given the way that administration nearly ran the country into the ground. The bloom is not quite off the Clinton rose in that regard – although give it twenty years or so – which lets the next President load up on a bunch of people who have been quietly waiting their turn to take up the reins of power again.
It’s only remarkable (in the sense of “worth making a remark over”) in this case because there are probably a bunch of people out there who may be wondering exactly what kind of Change this really is. To which the answer is that it’s Change that you can really believe in – which is to say, Change from one set of predetermined Party apparatchiks to another. Put it another way: those folks essentially spent somewhere around a billion dollars or so to determine which person received the privilege of being able to give Wendy Sherman a government job.
Well done.
Moe Lane
PS: Yes, yes, the similarity between the GOP’s starting position in 1992 and our starting position in 2008 has been noted. Increasingly gleefully.
Steve Maley
Neil Stevens
Daniel Horowitz
And with Mrs. Clinton as Sec. State.......
Kenny Solomon (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 9:56AM EST (link)……all I can see and hear is her first speech, in her ‘perfect’ voice, coming straight out of the movie Mars Attacks…………
Ladies and Gentlemen, I just want to say that as Secretary Of State I am going to….Ack ! AAAACCCCKKK !! AAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKK !!!!!
Back in 2007, I thought we might face a Clinton Restoration starting in 2009...
Stinger808 (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 10:09AM EST (link)…but with Obama’s nomination, I figured I was mistaken.
I guess I should have gone with my first instinct.
They're baaaaaaack!
Mark Kilmer (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 10:26AM EST (link)Change in which we can believe? Certainly; after all, Obama is,by all accounts I’ve heard, a devoted family man.
Change in which we can believe? He took one of Clinton’s political hatchet guys and made him chief of staff.
Just how many more favors can Bill call in
Scope (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 10:33AM EST (link)And to think that when Hillary lost the nomination, I happily sang “Ding Dong the Witch is Dead.” I guess Clinton’s the parents are trying to keep the bridge alive and well until Chelsea is up for her turn.
Will be interesting to see his Cabinet
bk (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 10:55AM EST (link)He seems to be looking at lots of Senators, which I guess we should have expected since Senators think the other 99 Senators are the next smartest people in the world after the Senator him/herself.
I’m more interested to see who ends up as AG than at State or Defense. I figured John Edwards would have been at the top of the list, which would have been a disaster. But since he’s presumably out of the running it, wouldn’t surprise me to see Jamie Gorelick get it. What a disaster that would be too, but by the same token it’s hard to imagine him naming an AG that WON’T be a total disaster.
Is anyone surprised by this?
sickofitall Friday, November 14th at 11:09AM EST (link)The Clintons have had the Democrat party by the b*lls since ’92 and it’s no surprise that despite Billary’s fumble in the primary they haven’t let go. Kind of tough for the Obamination to grow a pair when they’re squeezing him so hard. Or maybe he realized that the quickest way to achieve his Marxist goals is to work with the experts.
“You have to remember that Adolf Hitler was elected in a democratic Germany.” – Rep. Paul Broun
Follow the money
hunter (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 11:33AM EST (link)They used FNMA and FMAC to take the money from our wallets to theirs.
Now they will use the full faith and credit of the Federal Government to take our money and make it theirs.
We have the makings of a thugocracy working on a global scale.
hunter
Bill 'n' Hill are the Freddie and Jason of American politics
Stinger808 (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 11:50AM EST (link)NT
what happens with Clinton's senate seat?
davidingeorgia Friday, November 14th at 12:48PM EST (link)since Hillary might actually be one of his better cabinet/court nominees (damning with VERY faint praise here), I’m more interested in what would happen to her senate seat in NY…I assume the governor gets to fill the slot with some other Dem apparatchik? or do they have to have a special election to fill out her term?
yes, I’m thinking Rudy if he could be talked into it
Relief.
birdmojo (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 1:28PM EST (link)He’s just another politician.
This country has survived worse than just another politician.
Man is free at the moment he wishes to be. –Voltaire
the old gang plus a new player
amercianpie Friday, November 14th at 1:32PM EST (link)obama is going to change the old party ways ha,he keeps the same old cronies and now adds a new twist he now has enlisted the servicves of the press to his administration, already they are floating B.S. polls that say amercians are willing to wait for their tax breaks so obama can get the country going in the right (or is it left) direction. in less than a week he has already ditched the number one reason he got elected, there goes the tax breaks for 95% of the country hang on it can only get worse!
Unfortunately we face two bad options.
mbecker908 (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 2:54PM EST (link)If an incoming administration (either party) relies on DC insiders they have the ability to “work the system” and get things done. Bottom line, the hard-ball insiders know where the bodies are buried and generally have no qualms about unearthing them as necessary. This also holds more true for Ds than for Rs because Rs are naturally wimps.
The other option is to bring in “outsiders” who don’t know the political landscape. They will be almost immediately emasculated by the insiders of both parties because the one thing that actually unites the parties in DC is a fear, mistrust and abject hate of outsiders (see S. Palin).
There is a third option. The incoming Administration sends a fully armed Marine Expeditionary Unit with air and armor to “discuss” the transition with the Congress and the Dept of State. An appropriate action in those two areas should bring the rest of the toads into line. Unfortunately, it’s not likely any incoming Administration would take this action, and (appropriately) the Marines would not obey the order. But hey, I can have my fantasies can’t I?
Rudy Numbers Poor
dld1717 (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 2:58PM EST (link)Sadly, Rudy’s number are very poor in state now. He was getting beat by current Governor and receiving about 40%
I guess it would depend on who would be appointed and Schummer is up in 2 years too
that's too bad...
davidingeorgia Friday, November 14th at 3:01PM EST (link)…but a lot can change in a year or two, esp. if Wall Street stays a mess (a good bet) and Rudy actually concentrated on NY instead of running for President.
(sigh)…oh well…I was hoping there might be a bit of good news in all this, but I guess not, at least not for now.
I doubt Rudy has any interest in being a Senator.
mbecker908 (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 3:20PM EST (link)He’s been in the private sector for a while. He doesn’t have to put up with press carping at him and his family, he is now a productive citizen as opposed to a leech, and he’s making one heck of a lot more money.
Frankly, I’ll lose some respect for him if he were to run for Senate.
So Happy
LizVBronx (Diary) Friday, November 14th at 8:04PM EST (link)Yes, I too was happy to hear the Dear Leader would be taking our Junior Senator as one of his minions to the great capitol.
This was the best news I’d heard in weeks!
I don’t know what will become of our senate seat..
I also think Bill Clinton might be our special US Envoy for Women’s Issues, or maybe Foreign Affairs???
lose respect for him?
davidingeorgia Saturday, November 15th at 7:52AM EST (link)I don’t know…Rudy stikes me as one of the few people in American politics today stubborn enough to pretty much stay himself while there…and I’d sure feel better about the Senate if I could trade Rudy for Hillary.