As if the appointment of Leon Panetta to CIA Director wasn’t enough, yesterday Barack Obama named 4 other former Clinton team members for positions within his administration.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Reporting from Washington — President-elect Barack Obama on Monday named four former Clinton administration officials as part of his new team at the Justice Department, tapping Harvard Law School’s dean, Elena Kagan, to become the first female solicitor general and Dawn Johnsen, a critic of Bush administration torture memos, to head the Office of Legal Counsel.
David Ogden, who headed the Obama transition team for the Justice Department, was nominated to be deputy attorney general.
Kagan, the first female dean at Harvard Law, reportedly met Obama when the two worked on the University of Chicago Law School faculty in the 1990s. Ogden’s deputy on the transition team, Tom Perrelli, was tapped to be associate attorney general.
As pointed out at Patterico’s Pontifications:
Ogden was Chief of Staff for Attorney General Janet Reno, followed by a position in the DOJ Civil Division from 1999 until 2001. Perilli was counsel to Reno from 1997 to 1999 and then served as deputy assistant attorney general in charge of the Federal Programs Branch of the Civil Division.
Kagan was Deputy Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy and Deputy Director of the Domestic Policy Council (1997-99) and Associate Counsel to the President (1995-96).
….
Johnsen is also a former Clinton Administration member, a legal director for the National Abortion Reproductive Rights Action League (NARAL Pro-Choice America), and Staff Counsel Fellow for the ACLU Reproductive Freedom Project in New York.
It’s a shame that our new First Lady won’t be able to be proud of her country. After all, if she wasn’t proud of the Clinton administration, how can she possibly be proud of her husband’s? They aren’t looking much different.
Filed under: Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Democrats, Government, Michelle Obama, Politics, Wordpress Political Blogs
All this leads me to wonder; is when,and where will the next Waco or Ruby Ridge atrocity be?
Red,
judging by Clinton’s approval ratings leaving office I fail to see what the big deal is with appointing former Clintonites. I mean, Clinton had his failings, but general American opinion is that Clinton had done a fairly good job. So what’s the beef?
Because the majority of the country voted for “CHANGE,” not “CLINTON.” If “CLINTON” is good enough, why not get it from a source closer to what you all seem to want?
Then again, I guess “I’m asking you to believe. Not only in my ability to bring the Clinton administration back to Washington… I’m asking you to believe in yours” just doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Like I said, this is just showing Obama’s inexperience at national-level politics. He never had time to build his own political network, so he’s left with filling spots with fellow senators, Illinois pols, and former Clinton folks.
I wish I could find a complete list of his appointments to date. It would be interesting to see how many don’t fall into 1 of those 3 catagories.
@ Red:
Who cares? Certainly not the American electorate.
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Actually, Red, the vast majority of the country is very happy with what they’ve seen of Barack Obama and his incoming administration so far. A full 67% say they admire him. 76% see him as a strong and decisive leader. 80% say he inspires confidence, can get things done, and is tough enough for the job.
Are you suggesting that he somehow misled voters during the campaign by not specifying what percentage of his appointments and hires would fall into the three categories you set out? Nobody bases their votes on that — they barely even consider who the VP running mate is. Americans vote for the President — that’s who they care about.
And, beginning shortly after January 20, I suspect this President is going to bring plenty of change. Let’s just wait and see.
I’m guessing, since he has no political experience at anything except campaigning, that the feelings you listed above are based on his jump-shot or uber-cool pecs.
Oh wait. I forgot. Campaigning is political experience.
Voters barely consider who the VP is? Have you forgotten the 2008 presidential election already?
No, I’m not suggesting Obama is a liar because of his appointments. He’s earned that title on much stronger issues than that.
It’s just fun to point and laugh at the fact that his lack of experience has forced him to select his staff from such a limited pool.