Clintonistas returning to Washington

I don't believe President-elect Obama has named a single cabinet secretary or other official to date, that doesn't have a strong pedigree in the Bill Clinton administration.

For the great apostle of change and hope, pledging to lead America on a new path, it is hard to see anything new. What possibly would be different, if, instead of becoming Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton had won and was staffing the new administration?

The liberal press, deeply embedded in Obama's pocket, sees this as wisdom, appointing experienced--and in their mind, distinguished--public servants to the new administration. But where is the change and exciting new direction?

For all the political bilge that many could see through as it rolled from Obama's lips, about America entering a post-partisan era without rancor or discord, what we are seeing is "the same old, same old."

That is not to say that this is all bad. In this perilous time economically and internationally, a good argument can be made that the stability of experience and familiarity is just what the times demand. From a John McCain administration, this is exactly what we were promised and would have expected.

But for the great agent of change, who rolled up some 57% of the popular vote and an even bigger margin in the electoral college, and arguably drew this strong endorsement because he promised something new--such a result would be disappointing and questionable, at least to a less fawning, and more objective news media assessment.

As a conservative, I like the looks of the Obama Administration a lot more than I thought I would, so far. And the far left is squealing in the blogosphere about Obama's more middle-of-the-road approach. But it's full steam ahead in the mainstream media, puffing each Obama appointee just a little higher than the last one.

Campaign promises are always tossed aside after the election is over. But Obama is setting a record for speed.

Left apoplectic at early Obama appointments

The far left constituency that elected Barack Obama as president-elect, is coming unwired on the internet and blogs, at his early appointments to the White House staff and cabinet.

It is turning out to be a business-as-usual, garden variety, middle-of-the-road Democratic administration. He is looking to govern from the center, as Bill Clinton tried to do, rather than larding up the administration with zealots and Georgia good old boys, as Jimmy Carter did. (Remember OMB head Bert Lance? Remember Carol Tucker Foreman, head of the radical Consumer Federation of America, as Ag Secretary? Obama is considering farmer-friendly former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack. A huge difference.)

Obama's first appointment, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, is no ideologue. He is a hard-edged, sharp-elbowed Washington insider. A scion of the Clinton administration, he brokered the conservative Welfare Reform bill that got Clinton re-elected, and brought in Republican Dick Morris to the White House, to shine up Clinton's strategy after the congressional election debacle of 1994, when Newt Gingrich and the Contract with America, swept control of both houses of Congress.

Obama's nomination of Eric Holder as Attorney General has the left beside themselves. He worked out the presidential pardon of international criminal wheeler-dealer Marc Rich. He is hardline on terrorism and internal security. (Despite what the Obama sycophants in the liberal press are reporting, Holder IS NOT the first black Attorney General. Edward Levi in the Gerald Ford administration was.)

Hillary Clinton as secretary of state is more of a hard liner on Iraq and terrorism. If he keeps Bush's Defense Secretary, Bob Gates, as he is hinting at this writing, it is shaping up as a reasonably hardline team.

All these people are well left of my preferences, but are not near as scary as who Obama might have appointed. If anything, it looks nearly identical to what we might have expected Hillary to set up, if she had been elected. All his transition team and the appointments so far, are old Clinton hands.

It sets up his administration as governing from the middle, and throwing very little red meat to his most ardent adherents. What a pleasant surprise!

Media already rehabilitating Bush, Cheney

Now that the White House is passing safely back into liberal Democratic hands, the unapologetically-pro-Obama mass media is starting to say nice things about George W. Bush, and yes, even Vice President Dick Cheney.

Presidents frequently rise when historical perspective sets in, as has already happened with Harry Truman and Ronald Reagan. It will take a while, but President Bush will go down as one of the great occupants of the office.

The current media is only admitting that he is gracious, and a nice guy, in hosting the Obamas at the White House. There is also a few references to how the Bush team is being a lot more cooperative with the incoming Obama transition group, than President Bill Clinton was with the incoming Bushies.

Clinton, as you'll recall, stripped the White House of furniture, nick nacks and trashed the West Wing offices, leaving communications systems and computers inoperable. It was so bad that the Justice Department forced the Clintons to return a lot of things.

What will take longer is to give proper credit to the significant accomplishments of the Bush White House: keeping America safe, as there have been no further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since 9/11. For bringing the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to a place where democracy can flourish in those former dictatorships. For appointing John Roberts and Samuel Alioto to the U.S. Supreme Court, both distinguished legal scholars, regardless of philosophy.

Dick Cheney has been one of the strongest vice presidents in history, which is why the Democrats like to bash him so much. As a former leader in the U.S. House, Defense Secretary and White House Chief of Staff, Cheney had the institutional knowledge to see the value in restoring the power and prerogatives of the executive branch, and has worked from the inside to burnish the presidency. He has been the power behind the throne on terrorism, a strong hand for President Bush.

History will cut through the present day politics, and clawing for partisan advantage, to record what a strong presidency the George W. Bush administration really was.

Intellectual snobbery behind Palin blasts

The liberal media intelligentsia has seized upon the sour grapes of moderate McCain staffers, to slur the name of Sarah Palin, the GOP vice presidential nominee.

The backbiting and internal skullduggery of any campaign organization of human beings is always a sight to behold. You haven't heard about Obama's yet because they won the election. Believe me, it does exist and at some inopportune time for Obama, it will become public. The rivalries and clawing for attention exist in any campaign, and are only subdued by success--and then, only temporarily. Such is the human condition.

Sarah Palin proved to be a potent, able public figure. Her energizing of the conservative base of the Republican Party powered McCain to a respectable loss, rather than a complete blowout. By himself, or paired with some vanilla establishment GOP figure like Mitt Romney, McCain could never have garnered 163 electoral votes in the present political climate. Before Palin, the GOP base was sitting on its hands, prepared to do nothing.

This scares liberals witless. At only 44 years old, and the first natural politician the GOP has turned up since Ronald Reagan, Palin has unlimited potential. GOP moderates and the liberal media who never support Republicans of any stripe, have united to bury Palin before she has the opportunity to do them even more damage.

Using the anonymous leaks out of the remains of the vaunted McCain "organization," about Palin's alleged lack of intelligence (a complete lie), sophistication and worldliness, the liberal media is having a hay day. This will die down, as the Obama media drumbeat gets even stronger toward Inauguration Day, and crowds out all other "news."

By that time, the Democrats in charge of the U.S. Senate will have expelled the newly re-elected felon U.S. Senator, Ted Stevens, and Palin will be running in the special election. If they thought Palin was a thorn in their side as the veep nominee, wait until she is a new U.S. Senator from Alaska.

It ought to be delicious! I can hardly wait.

The divisive first Obama appointment

President-elect Obama (doesn't that sound strange?), certainly tossed his campaign rhetoric about bringing us together, reaching across the aisle, and entering a post-partisan era, overboard--as he made the first appointment of his administration the sharp-elbowed, abrupt, overbearing, hyper-partisan Rahm Emanuel as Chief of Staff.

The number three in the U.S. House Democratic leadership, Emanuel is known as a man who gets things done, but establishes a rather super-partisan, far left, confrontational tone for the new administration.

An old Clinton hand, Emanuel is also a well-connected member of the Chicago Democratic Machine and close friend of Obama's. While Obama downplayed the extent to which he had sold out to the Dailey machine to build his Illinois political career, instead playing up his roots as an outsider "community organizer," this appointment shows his true roots.

Emanuel was tight with Bill Clinton, but just the opposite with Hillary. In terms of healing the Democratic Party, for a united front in getting the new administration off the ground, there are a lot of aggrieved Democrats laying around in the bushes, who got in Emanuel's way over the years, and got run over.

It is fortunate Emanuel is a liberal Democrat, or the press would savage him for his success in private business, which rivals Hillary's career in commodities trading. In less than two years as a Wall Street bond trader after he left the Clinton White House, Emanuel wracked up some $16.2 million in commissions.

This rivals what Dick Cheney made in his brief career at Halliburton, and for which he has been continuously strafed by the left and their handmaidens in the mass media.

Emanuel's appointment does signify an aggressive start to the Obama administration, but not exactly what was promised in all the new prexy's soaring rhetorical flourishes.

No veto-proof Senate, at least

In a bleak, tragic night for the Republican Party the only ray of light is that it held on to 42-44 U.S. Senate seats. This means that with strong, courageous, able leadership (lacking for the last several years). the GOP could sustain filibusters of Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid's most odious legislation.

However, Republicans seem to have a death wish, as evidenced by the atrocious McCain campaign and the total chaos and lack of organization by the National Republican Committee and many state parties. This was not a Democratic victory--it was Republican loss.

Until the spirit of Newt Gingrich and Tom DeLay is restored to the GOP leadership, instead of the present "to get along, go along" crowd that run the party, losses of this magnitude will become the norm.

It's time for the GOP to clear out the old hacks, cronies and fossils in the congressional and statehouse leadership--as well as the party organization--and usher in new ideas, new methods and fresh-faced, young leadership.

I'm not holding my breath, because I don't like to turn blue, but just maybe this devastating Republican defeat will usher in desperately-needed change.