Deja Vu All Over Again

ENPR: Obama Administration Looking More Like Clinton Third Term

by Timothy P. Carney
11/19/2008

Obama continues to tap the Clinton Administration for his own administration, dashing the hopes many liberals had voiced in the spring that the Democrats would no longer be the Clinton Party.

Obama Administration

Appointments: As the Obama Administration continues to take form, the new team increasingly looks like Clinton-Administration-Meets-Chicago.

1. It is all but official that Obama intends to tap Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) as secretary of State, and it is clear that Clinton is considering the job. She has dispatched lawyers to assist in the vetting process, but she could, in the end, still say no.

2. The question before Clinton: Is secretary of State her best available path the presidency in 2016? It's certainly more promising than another four to eight years in the Senate, and the governorship does not at the moment appear available to her.

3. The question before Obama: Will the Clintons' penchant for ethical indiscretions hurt his administration, and is there any healing-old-wounds value to picking her. It certainly wins him media adulation, but what doesn't?

4. Senate confirmation would give Republicans another chance to Clinton-bash, but she would face no serious resistance in that chamber, and would probably get a majority of Republicans along with all Democrats.

5. A vacancy in her Senate seat would set off an interesting scramble. For one thing, it would give Gov. David Patterson (D) an opportunity to use an appointment to help his own cause. Patterson faces a possible primary from Atty. Gen. Andrew Cuomo (D).

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=29562

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Most Transparent Transition in History Ushered in With a Camera Blackout

Washington lobbyists on Obama transition; "most open" transition fund-raising details

By
Lynn Sweeton November 12, 2008 7:36 AM
WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama's transition co-chairman John Podesta pledged Tuesday "to make this the most open and transparent transition in history." Meanwhile, let's see if the Obama team provides more than the legal minimum when it comes to details on how private money is being raised to help bankroll the transition operation.

"Under President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, the American people will see a transition of government that is efficient, that is organized, that is bipartisan and more open and transparent than others before," Podesta told reporters at a briefing.

And if by chance you thought that Obama's anti-federal lobbyist drive -- a centerpiece of his campaign -- would mean that federal lobbyists would not work in his transition or White House, then you have not been listening to Obama's carefully worded campaign promises on the subject. Federal lobbyists are welcome -- it would be hard to staff a transition without them, they usually know a lot -- there are just restrictions on what they can work on. Podesta unveiled ethics guidelines covering federal lobbyists who work for the Obama administration.

The headquarters transition offices are housed in a government-owned building in downtown Washington.

Podesta's briefing drew RSVPs from more than 200 journalists, so many that the transition arranged for a listen-only conference call -- in order to pare down the number of reporters actually attending.

Still, about 140 showed up to see Podesta, a former Clinton White House chief of staff, standing behind a podium flanked with flags.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/11/washington_lobbyists_on_obama.html#more

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