Let’s take a look at some of these choices.  I’ll let you decide whether they inspire the “hope and change” we were all promised.

Chief of Staff
Rahm Emanuel

Republicans and Democrats alike were disappointed in Barack’s choice for Chief of Staff.  Republicans because he is a fierce partisan known for his aggressive tactics and Democrats because they are just plain scared of him.  Emanuel cut his political teeth in Chicago before becoming Bill Clinton’s chief fund raiser and then a Congressman.  One famous story has him sending a two foot decomposing fish to a pollster who produced less than acceptable results.  Another has him standing up at a Clinton Staff meeting, slamming a steak knife into the table and yelling “dead” after the names of those who opposed the Clinton Presidency…”Nat Landow, DEAD!...Cliff Jackson, DEAD!... Bill Schaefer, DEAD!” (by the way, George Stephanopolos, ABC news’ supposedly unbiased host, was there yelling too).  Here is a quote from someone who’s worked with Emanuel: “grown men lived in mortal fear of what he might do to them if they couldn’t give the answer he wanted.”  Emanuel was the face of the Obama administration in the weeks following the election, but we haven’t heard much from him lately.  That’s because he’s knee deep in the Blagojevich scandal in Chicago.  Word has leaked out that Emanuel was captured on court-approved wire taps repeatedly discussing names with the disgraced Governor.  He most certainly knew that Blagojevich intended to sell the vacated seat.  This raises all sorts of questions about Barack’s involvement as well.  After all, Barack, Emanuel and Blagojevich are all large cogs in the Chicago political machine. To suggest they all weren’t involved in this mess somehow is naïve.  Many are calling for Emanuel to resign his new position to save Barack.  We’ll see how this plays out.  It certainly does bring back memories of the Clinton Administration doesn’t it?  The only difference is that Barack hasn’t even been sworn in yet.

Attorney General
Eric Holder

Eric Holder is Barack Obama’s choice for his Attorney General.  God help us.  He is the former deputy Attorney General in the Clinton Justice Department, an oxymoron if there ever was one.  Holder engineered Clinton’s controversial presidential pardons including those of international scumbag Marc Rich and 16 FALN Puerto-Rican terrorists.  He is also behind the disgrace that was the seizure of Elian Gonzalas at gun-point.  Two weeks before the raid, Tim Russert asked Holder, “You wouldn’t send a SWAT team in the dark of night to kidnap the child, in effect?”  Holder answered,  “No, we don’t expect anything like that to happen.”  Well, that’s exactly what happened.  Holder appeared again with Russert the day after the episode.  He was asked: “Why such a dramatic change in position?”  “I’m not sure I’d call it a dramatic change,”  Holder answered.  “We waited ‘til five in the morning, just before dawn.”  How Clintonesque?  Holder also played an important role pre 9-11 in blocking the feds from investigating terrorists by building a wall between the intelligence agencies.  We all know the results of that brilliant policy.  By all accounts, Holder is an opportunist not an idealist .  Like Clinton, Barack chose an Attorney General that will be easily manipulated and controlled. Let’s hope, we don’t get similar results.

Commerce Secretary
Bill Richardson

Bill Richardson is a cuddly, loveable fellow who made a splash during the campaign by endorsing Barack Obama over his former boss, Hillary Clinton.  His payoff for this endorsement was a cabinet position. Richardson was Clinton’s Energy Secretary before becoming Governor of New Mexico.  As Energy Secretary, Richardson presided over one of the biggest and least reported scandals of the Clinton Administration: allowing Chinese spies to infiltrate and steal all of our nuclear secrets from the laboratories at Los Alamos.  Many saw this as a deliberate payoff to the Chinese for their generous campaign contributions to the Clintons.  Richardson was highly criticized for his role in the theft.  His explanation for the lax security led Senator Richard Shelby to tell him: “you have lost what credibility you had left on Capital Hill.”  Like all of the Clinton hacks, however, Richardson was able to emerge from the scandal and get elected Governor of New Mexico and then chosen by Barack Obama to be his Commerce Secretary.  Like his cheeks, everything appeared to be rosy, until a grand jury investigation into his New Mexico administration’s awarding of state contracts to a firm whose president had contributed generously to Richardson’s political committees was announced.  The scandal grew until, over the weekend, Richardson withdrew his nomination and will not be Commerce Secretary.  This leaves us wondering what could have been and Barack wondering what other Clinton retreads are available.

Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton

I’m not sure the world is ready for Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.  I’m not sure Barack Obama is either.  Hillary has already announced that she sees an expanded domestic role for the Secretary of State, much like her expanded, domestic role for the First Lady in the Clinton Administration.  Here’s a few memories of that little experiment: Vince Foster, Travel Gate, Rose Law Firm, White Water, FBI files, vast Right-Wing conspiracies, Hillary Care, Ron Brown...etc, etc, etc.  Just to show she’s still got it too, it was revealed last week that Hillary secured millions of dollars in federal assistance for a businessman who had donated $100,000 to Bill Clinton’s library.  Some things never change.  Good Luck with this one Barack, you’ll need it.

Conclusion

Change we can believe in?


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