How many Clinton folks does that make on the new team?

the price to pay I suppose for their support

let’s hope obama knows how to handle them rather then the other way around

yeah, we can’t go forward if we go back to an older regime.

my first draft for Oxdown was called

7 Degrees of Tom Daschle

mebbe I should do some hunting around in bookmarks – just to see how close I was :D

Was this a price that Obama paid to get Hill and Bill to support him?

I don’t know anything about Gibbs at all. Tell me more, please.

OT
CQ forum on election analysis up on CSPAN now, jes strtin’

oo sounds like a time to revisit it.

I was hoping for Linda Douglas.

Ugh, I really don’t like all the Clinton folks in the new administration. I guess that’s just going to make our work that much harder.

If you threw a beanbag into a crowd of Obama advisers, all you would hit are former Clintonistas.

I hope Summers’ sexism, you know that science and math are over women’s pretty little heads, sinks his nomination. If we lived in a saner time, it would be his role in deregulating the financial system and producing the current meltdown that would do him in.

I was hoping for Linda Douglas.

me too.

oh, you were probably talking about some position in the administration, weren’t you?

I don’t know anything about Gibbs at all. Tell me more, please.

Didn’t he sing lead on “Stayin Alive”? I don’t know that much about him either outside of the Hannity piece.

Erm, methinks a Faustian bargain so as to learn the ropes; survive the transition. I should think Team Obama can hire and fire at will.

thankee……

Exactly. There will be no doubt that Obama is in charge.

absolute perfection is a highly personal, constantly moving target.

good luck folks.

oh hell’s bell and codfish……….AEI….spit!

Yes, how brilliant to put Wasserman Schultz in at DCCC–the woman who would not help out fellow Democrats in South Florida b/c she didn’t want to hurt neo-Con Republican Congresswoman Ros-Lehtin’s feelings. How many “time outs” will Wasserman Schultz take if she’s in charge of the whole show? How many Republicans is she too good of friends with to run Democrats against? Pathetic.

Not to be a boring practical person, yet again, but there is something to be said for calling on people who have actual experience in the jobs you’re about to assume, at least for advice and guidance during the transition.

If the Obama team didn’t, they’d be stupid. And they’re not that.

;->

There were several Clinton people on the Obama campaign from the git go. Dems that may have been pushing for a more progressive agenda under Clinton and etc. Let’s assess them for their views not past associations. Podesta is an example of someone who was a former Clinton person now working (temporarily) for Obama. What is his relationship to Think Progress?

Oh, good Lord, people! everyone calm down, the man has made, what, about two dozen appointments to a transition team and selected a COS and a spokesman and suddenly he has capitulated to the Clintons?

For a transition team you tap people from your party with experience in the White House and in the Departments. Who else is he going to get other than Clinton folks for his transition? Hamilton Jordan is dead.

God, are we going to fracture Obama’s power base completely if we freak out like this at every little thing.

Oh, ha. But, would you buy her dinner? *g*

While fretting about Obama’s personnel choices, it’s nice to remember that the Republics are currently pinning their hopes on Palin

It had to be explained to her that Africa was a continent, not a country

Just what the Nation needs, Republics, someone dumber than Bush.

I think the political reality has always been that there are just so many people in DC who are considered “acceptable” to fill such positions, and there really was never going to be that much difference in who any Democratic candidate (with a chance — we’ll leave out Gravel and Kusinich) would’ve appointed.

They’ll only be as good as we make ‘em.

On the positive side — the rumor had been that Obama had given the nod to Rahm to pass Columbia Free Trade in a lame duck session so Bush could sign it and he wouldn’t have to. It looks like that may not happen now because folks such as yourself weren’t going to swallow that pill happily. So your participation is, and will continue to be, very important in shaping what happens to the country.

I’m hopeful that Obama has sound reasons for everything he’s doing. Remember FDR put Joe Kennedy in charge of the SEC because, “It takes a thief to catch one.”

But I would also like to see a ’scorecard’ of everyone Obama’s offering jobs to now, and what jobs those are. I’d hate to see another Clinton administration.

Maybe instead of Fantasy Football we could come up with a way to play Fantasy Cabinet.

For the record, I don’t think this signifies a capitulation to the Clintons. I think these people really are the ones Obama believes in, they’ve been advising him all along.

I like Podesta a great deal myself.

Hear hear. Some folks around here seem intent on making the perfect the enemy of the good. Get a grip!

think progress has a great commentary up right now;

In an interview with the Washington Times, Rep. Thaddeus McCotter (R-MI) – who is the policy committee head for the House GOP — said of the conservative movement: “We’re rock bottom.” He added, though, that losing has its advantages. “We are now free to start thinking again, acting again, and doing the right thing by what our constituents and our country need.” Apparently, it takes being out of power for conservatives to “think” and “do the right thing.”

this will be true of democrats as well unless we hold their feet to the fire

no slackers

i like the idea of van hollen leading the caucus, but i do NOT like the concept of debby “i love my gop friends too much to fund real challengers” washingmachine-schults as DCCC head. at all.

I agree. No Debbie in leadership position.

Why does this sound like Carly Fiorini describing why corporate CEOs should be considered as some kind of elite.

Yes, how could they even consider her after the stunt she pulled? How many races would she recuse herself from as DCCC chair b/c she’s too buddy buddy with a GOPer?

She could have helped flip those seats in South Florida, and she did nothing. Pathetic.

Well, I’m still pissed that Obama didn’t listen to me more regarding how to run an effective campaign.

Maybe a good wordsmith could prepare a petition to the DCCC that we could all sign voicing our disdain for her elevation to that position. I for one always cited her positions in my refusal to donate to the DCCC this cycle.

Why is it that we can bring our analytic skills to bear on Republicans and Republican policy but not on Democrats, including Obama? Aside from wishful thinking that Obama will do the right thing, there has been zero evidence to date that he will or intends to.

This reminds me of the split in the left blogosphere before the 2006 election between Democrats and progressives. Yes, there is some overlap but the two are not equivalent. Obama’s record on the FISA Amendments Act and on the financial bailout, his failure to lead opposition to the war in Iraq (yes, I know he was against it but did he lead?), his advisers, his choice of Rahm Emanuel, the buzz about Lawrence Summers, all these are data points, and none of them indicate a scintilla of progressivism in Obama’s agenda.

Dang it! I wanted Rachel to be press secretary.

Press secretary is no big deal, really. i don’t read too much significance into it. He’ll be there 2 years, probably

If the election has demonstrated anything, it is that Obama knows how to put together and manage an effective team. So I decline to get excited about these appointments.

Thank you for saying that! I wholeheartedly agree! I also refuse to try to second guess him before he even takes office; seems he may have his reasons and his reasons may not fit with ours specifically, but they may fit better to the majority of the people (and he will be President of all the people, after all. Not just us!)

agree. in so many ways the campaign is a game and we’re fans–second guessing,. bullshitting about it. we’ve been doing it for 2 years now. it’s haerd to get out of that habit–if it’s even possible at all.

Effectiveness is not the issue. We know Obama is effective. To effect what is the problem.

Speaking as a long time observer:
Enough with the Clintonettes back in charge of Congress again Jane, with all due respect! And in the White House.
That’s not change.

And everyone mark my words – the first Obama Administration trouble will come from an Emanuel related issue. The GOP are giddy at him being chosen because they know he’s as likely to clean up his act as they are.

Schultz and Van Hollen are party insiders driven by their donors -haven’t we had enough candidates driven by donors choices rather than by the more Progressive choices local constituents seem to prefer??

Open the doors and blinds and look for new Democrats, real Democrats driven by duty and not dollars.

Debbie Wasserman Schultz hasn’t had a competitive race for her own Congressional seat — ever. Van Hollen actually knocked off a real competitor, an incumbent (Connie Morella) who’d served the district for years. DWS talks a good game, and has matured into a great spokesperson on teevee, but I don’t trust her to choose which candidates to back, especially after the way she treated Annette Taddeo, who would have won her South Florida seat had DWS not been too chummy with the South Florida Cuban GOP incumbents.

Not a good choice for progressives, not a good choice for Democrats.

Where’s CJ Craig when we need her?

that’s my world. sad isn’t it?

This guy isn’t smart enough to be press secy