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chitown

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President-elect promised change, picking insiders - Yahoo! News


President-elect promised change, picking insiders



WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama promised the voters change but has started his Cabinet selection process by naming several Washington insiders to top posts.


Obama is enlisting former Senate leader Tom Daschle as his health secretary. Hillary Rodham Clinton, a well-known Washington personality, seemed more likely than ever to be his secretary of state. Clinton is deciding whether to take that post as America's top diplomat, her associates said Wednesday
Obama is ready to announce that his attorney general will be Eric Holder, the Justice Department's No. 2 when Clinton's husband was president. Rahm Emanuel, Obama's chief of staff, is another veteran of the Clinton White House.


Daschle's selection to head the Health and Human Services Department — confirmed Wednesday but not yet announced — isn't at the same level of Cabinet prestige as the top spots at the State and Justice departments. But the health post could be more important in an Obama administration than in some others, making Daschle a key player in helping steer the president-elect's promised health care reforms.


Daschle could push Obama for quick action on health care reform next year, if he follows his own advice.


Daschle said efforts during the Clinton administration, led by Hillary Clinton, took too long and went into too much detail, giving every interest group an opportunity to find something they didn't like about the plan.
"The next president should act immediately to capitalize on the goodwill that greets any incoming administration. If that means attaching a health-care plan to the federal budget, so be it," Daschle wrote in a book he released this year, "Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis." "This issue is too important to be stalled by Senate protocol."


The former South Dakota senator's return to the government will be a vindication of sorts. He was the Senate Democratic leader when he was defeated in 2004 by Republican John Thune, who convinced voters back home that Daschle was more concerned with Washington than with them.


In fact, Daschle stayed in the capital city after his defeat, becoming a public policy adviser and member of the legislative and public policy group at the law and lobbying firm Alston & Bird. Daschle isn't registered as a lobbyist. He advises clients on issues including health care, financial services, taxes and trade, according to the firm's Web site.


Health care interests, including CVS Caremark, the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, Abbott Laboratories and HealthSouth, are among the firm's lobbying clients.


Daschle's appointment was not formally announced, but Democratic officials said the job was his barring an unforeseen problem as Obama's team reviews his background. One area of review will include the lobbying connections of his wife, Linda Hall Daschle, who has worked mostly on behalf of airline-related companies over the years. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to discuss the matter publicly.


Republicans sniped at what they saw as an unwelcome trend. Alex Conant, spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said, "Barack Obama is filling his administration with longtime Washington insiders."

Whiteshiva

And if he hadn't they would certainly be blaming him for picking people without experience..........

Milkman

I think Obama picking insiders is good. They know how Washington works, they'll make less mistakes because they have experience, and they can battle the partisan attacks, more easily.

I don't believe in "outsiders" going to Washington, because "outsiders" have a horrible track record.

Boon Mee

Imagine that...

chitown

Why not - Mr. Smith made a difference!

Milkman

^ But, Chitown, I'm serious.

The upper echelons of this enormous and complicated government should be filled with experienced people. People that know the tricks, and know where the bodies are burried. Lobbyists, PACs, watering down legislation, and bureaucracies that drag their feet.

Down the ladder, I am sure there will be some fresher folks.

"Change" was only a political slogan, as we all know. I remember hearing that line for the 1992 election. I think Ross Perot, used it.

There is change. But it's not wiping the slate entirely clean with "outsiders" who come to Washington who have to spend a year consulting with people to teach them how things work.

__________________
Military men are dumb, stupid animals, to be used as pawns for foreign policy

Boon Mee

^
Yer wrong...again. Example here

panama hat

You really are a racist . . . very tasteless but not unexpected.

Anyway, I don't see how using ex-Clinton staff and insiders is anathema to change . . . Obama has his policies and will use the right people (we hope) to do the job.

He gives directions and those chosen to work for him will do what they do to follow those directives.

Jet Gorgon

^ & ^^ Get with the programme, boys. That is what Al Q Zawahiri said. I'm just quoting his words. Hey, it's even in your favourite libbie newspaper.
5555555555

WASHINGTON — In a propaganda salvo by Al Qaeda aimed at undercutting the enthusiasm of Muslims worldwide about the American election, Osama bin Laden’s top deputy condemned President-elect Barack Obama as a “house Negro” who would continue a campaign against Islam that Al Qaeda’s leaders said was begun by President Bush.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/20/wo...t/20qaeda.html

Other sources say the translation was wrong and should read "house slave."

Jesus Jones

The only thing that has change is the rhetoric. Obama decides nothing.

panama hat

^^ I fail to see what your post is trying to convey, Jet. Why use the terminology, especially given your past comments about his race?

^ Anything to substantiate that, Jesus?

Jet Gorgon

^ You have missed the point all the way along, hatter. I laughed at you when you threw a hissyfit that I said race would be an issue in the campaign. Anytime I mention race you throw a fit (aww, bet you've always taken care of all the abos in your neighbourhood, huh?). Race is an issue in the US. The fact that Al Q is calling him a "house negro" is a dig. Figure it out.

Milkman

From above posts. Calling Obama a "house negro" is not only incorrect, but biased. If he was white would a similar label be put on him. Obama is intelligent and consults with people. The term above implies others are telling him what to do and directing him. No evidence of this, that I've seen. Obama seems very pragmatic. And he seems more in the Center than Left, as you have to be in the Center to get things done in Washington, IMO.

In another pragmatic move IMO, Gates is likely to stay on as SecDef.

Jet Gorgon

WTF? MM, didn't you read where that label came from? I put the link in my GD post. It's what Al Q Zawahiri called BO in his speech for crikes sake. It ain't a term coined by ME or even the KKK. I am giving up on you libbies for sure now. You don't even read the links or all the news, do you (hey, that negro line I even copied from the NYT for you folks) and you just post messiah crap. Yep, you'll get what you asked for. I used to admire your views, MM.

Milkman

That's my point.


I didn't say it was.

I don't consider myself a "libbie." It's an outdated term that died out at least 18+ years ago.

My views haven't changed. They are the same as they've always been.

Whiteshiva

Why do people keep referring to Obama as a black or a negro? He is as much white as he is black (one white parent, one black).

How many % white do you have to be before you are referred to as such?

AntRobertson

Doesn't matter. It's the colour of the skin that's the defining measure to those that such things matter to. Always has been, always will be.

sabang

The reason the repub's are whinging about Obama picking experienced Washington intsiders is because it leaves them nothing else to whinge about, and they've got to whinge about something- indeed, thats what they're paid for. Obamas appointments thus far reak of pragmatism, oh dear . Tom Daschle seems a bloody good choice for Health actually. Not so sure about Hillary for secretary of state.

So AQ wishes to continue the Holy Jihad against the great Satan. Well knock me down with a feather.

__________________
Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel.

chitown

WS, I went through this debate with a guy a few days before the election and he was going on and on using the "N" word and such. I asked him the same question and he said 0%.

He had also expressed that if Obama won, he was moving to Canada. So I called him on Skype the day after the election and asked if he had inquired about a moving truck yet. No answer on that one.

Bugs

This is the main problem with the way Washington works. The "need" for insiders is mainly because without them the other insiders would make life too hard on those that are not "insiders", and things would get too bogged down.

IMHO the answer is not to kowtow to the insiders but to call them out. Step up to the plate and take them on, not play the game by their rules.


Know the tricks? Where the bodies are burried?

Again this are the problems with the system. There should be no tricks, there should be no bodies. Elected officials need to start doing what is right for their electorate, voting in their best interest - not trading favors, and learning the tricks to try and funnel pork into their district. Pork is not what is best for the country or a given district in the long run.

The only reason they need to spend time to learn how things work is because the insiders of the past have set up the system to make this a requirement. It really should not be so difficult, and anyone with a basic college education (and many with just a basic high school education) should be able to grasp/understand the fundamentals of how the US system is supposed to work - not necessarily how the system currently works, but how it is supposed to work.

IMHO the only area that does require people with some level of existing experience are those related to foreign relations. And even then the folks with the experience don't necessarily have to be the very top people.


I am a bit disapointed in the folks Obama has chosen to date (too many with lobbiest ties and too many with Clinton ties), but the outcome of these picks has yet to be seen. Hopefully things will turn out better than I expect.

__________________
"Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you'd have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, it takes religion" - Steven Weinberg