The Swamp

Obama makes pitch for Chicago Olympics

2008-11-21T18:04:00Z

by John McCormick

President-elect Barack Obama's transition staff released a video message this morning that he recorded to boost Chicago's efforts to win the 2016 Olympics. The message is for the European Olympic Committee (EOC) XXXVII General Assembly meeting in Istanbul, Turkey.

"In the coming years, my administration will bring a fresh perspective on America's role and responsibilities around the world," Obama says in the message. "But if we are to truly meet our shared challenges, we must all work together. By uniting the world in a peaceful celebration of human achievement, the Olympic Games reminds us that this is possible."

Obama goes on to talk about the importance of the Olympics to international relations.

"The United States would be honored to have the opportunity to host the Games and serve the Olympic Movement," he says. "As President-Elect, I see the Olympic and Paralympic Games as an opportunity for our nation to reach out, welcome the world to our shores, and strengthen our friendships across the globe."

Obama gets Verizon apology

2008-11-21T17:14:00Z

by Frank James

Will people never learn? Verizon has had to apologize because some of its employees without authorization looked at the cell-phone records of President-elect Barack Obama.

This is only the latest instance of employees with access to records of celebrities surreptitiously scanning them. It's happened at hospitals, the Internal Revenue Service and phone companies.

These employees seem to be unaware that large companies and institutions with sensitive personal data often have technology that leaves an audit trail of who has accessed the records to track just this kind of behavior.

Now they know.

Sarah Palin's turkey of a photo op

2008-11-21T16:43:52Z

by Frank James

Gov. Sarah Palin's turkey-pardoning photo op was not the kind you'd see at the White House, to say the least. Here in Washington, the idea of these annual events is to leave everyone feeling warm and fuzzy.

But we're talking Alaska here. And we're talking Palin, so you expect things to be a little different. And they were. This may be the only turkey-pardoning photo-op where you actually see turkeys slaughtered.

MSNBC had video of the actual pardoning ceremony on its Countdown show last night.

This photo op is so bizarre it makes you wonder if it's a hoax, if two videos were actually edited together.

How any politician's staff would allow their boss to do an "availability" against a backdrop of turkeys shuddering as their necks are snapped is really about as mind-boggling as it gets.

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There's something to be said for keeping it real, for showing people the way turkeys get to Thanksgiving tables.

But politicians' availabilities are meant for getting their message out. It's hard to do that when people are distracted by turkeys doing death kicks in the background.

Iraq-U.S. pact draws Iraqi protests

2008-11-21T15:26:00Z

A protester uses his sandal to strike an effigy of U.S. President George. W. Bush as thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr converged on Firdous Square in central Baghdad, Iraq for a mass prayer to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008.(AP Photo/Karim Kadim)

by Frank James

Shiite followers of the Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, a persistent thorn in the Bush Administration's side, held a large demonstration in Baghdad's Firdous Square to protest the agreement between the U.S. and Iraqi governments that would allow the American military to remain in Iraq until the end of 2011.

Sadr has been mostly quiet during the period of the U.S. and Iraqi security surge. But the agreement gives him the perfect opportunity to rally his supporters around assertions of Iraqi nationalism.

Thousands of followers of Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr bow in prayer as they converge on Firdous Square in central Baghdad, Iraq to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact on Friday, Nov. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

Here's a little color from the demonstration as reported by the Associated Press:

Chanting and waving flags, thousands of Muqtada al-Sadr's followers filled Firdous Square to protest a proposed U.S.-Iraqi security pact that would allow American troops to stay for three more years. The Bush effigy was placed on the same pedestal where U.S. Marines toppled the ousted dictator's statue in one of the iconic images of the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.

After a mass prayer, demonstrators pelted the effigy with plastic water bottles and sandals. One man hit it in the face with his sandal. The effigy fell head first into the crowd and protesters jumped on it before setting it ablaze.

Before it fell, the effigy held a sign that said: "The security agreement ... shame and humiliation."

Bush snubbed at G20?

2008-11-21T14:38:00Z

by Frank James

There's this CNN video flying around the Internet from the G20 meeting last weekend that shows President Bush walking on the stage for the "class photo" and no one shaking his hand.

Rick Sanchez, the CNN anchor, said it looked like Bush was snubbed because he's unpopular and a lot of people on the web have adopted that interpretation.

It's an example of people seeing what they want to see.

Here's an alternate explanation. The G20 has a weird protocol where the leader of the host nation doesn't shake hands while walking on stage for the final photo op with other leaders.

Each of these events is choreographed to the nth degree including where all the leaders stand. Looking at the video, it would also be possible to come to the view that many of the world leaders were feeling weighed down that day since they walked along the stage with their heads bowed.

But what they're actually doing is looking for their marks which are taped to the carpet on the floor.

Just another example of why what you see is not always what you think you see.

Obama's (Clinton's) roster fits the Bill

2008-11-21T13:05:07Z

by Christi Parsons and Peter Nicholas

The roster shaping up for the Barack Obama administration is starting to look a little familiar, with an ironic pattern emerging as one name after another is added to it.

A striking number of new and potential team members so far can trace their professional history to the same political birthplace -- the administration of one President Bill Clinton.

There's Sen. Hillary Clinton, of course, the former First Lady now under consideration for Secretary of State. And Rep. Rahm Emanuel, the former Bill Clinton aide who will be Obama's chief of staff. And Eric Holder, once deputy to former Att'y. Gen. Janet Reno and now Obama's likely pick for attorney general. There's the new White House lawyer, the budget director, and so on.

For all his talk of transformation, Obama's earliest decisions suggest something odd: the more things change, the more they look like the 1990s. Some predict a Clinton Restoration in the making.

"Voters hoping to see Obama bring a lot of fresh faces to D.C. must be disappointed," said Alex Conant, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee. "So far, it's been more like Clinton.gov than Change.gov."

It makes sense that the incoming Democratic president might fish for talent in the same pond as the last Democratic president. If Obama is looking for depth of expertise, there's a good chance that many job prospects were in or around the White House a decade ago.

But there's a certain irony to the developing pattern, given Obama's campaign pledge not to spend the next four years "refighting the same fights that we had in the 1990s."

"There's no question about the talent level," said Doug Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget Office director and senior policy advisor to Republican Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign. "They have a public relations problem in the appearance of not really fulfilling the, quote, change mandate.''

See the rest of the story on Obama's Clinton-heavy lineup in the Tribune newspapers and here in the Swamp:

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The Clinton alums began to populate the new team right away, when Obama picked Emanuel from the Illinois congressional delegation for the first big assignment. After serving as political director in the Clinton White House, Emanuel agreed to help assemble and captain the Obama team as chief of staff.

Since then, the Clinton names have flowed plentifully, with more than two dozen set either to serve on an Obama transition team or to actually staff positions in the newly forming administration. Greg Craig, who was Clinton's impeachment lawyer, will serve as White House counsel. Vice President Al Gore's chief of staff, Ron Klain, will do the same job for Joe Biden. Gore's counsel, Lisa Brown, will be staff secretary.

At the same time, Hillary Clinton appears to be a serious candidate to head the State department. By some lights, Obama never really considered Clinton as his vice presidential running mate, instead floating her name for the job while never actually going to the trouble of formally vetting her.

But Clinton friends believe Obama seems more serious now, and developments this week suggest she is getting a more thorough review this time around.

Hoping to ease qualms about how the former president's tangled business dealings might affect his wife's shot at the job, Bill Clinton even gave the Obama transition team a complete list of more than 200,000 donors to his presidential library and charitable foundation, according to a Democrat familiar with discussions between the two camps.

Clinton had not previously released this material, arguing that many donors had given money under the assumption the gifts would not be disclosed.

With that donor list in hand, Obama has important new information needed to investigate whether making her Secretary of State might pose any conflicts of interest.

Clinton loyalists think that her prospects of becoming Secretary of State are improving, as rivals for the position fall away. Allies of Clinton consider her possible nomination a smart one.

"You have to give the president-elect an incredible amount of credit for building a Cabinet with stars in it," said Gov. Ed Rendell, credited with helping Clinton win the Pennsylvania primary. "It goes against the grain. You're told, 'Don't have anyone in there with their own base of support, or too famous.'"

Still, Clinton could complicate things. Obama has a vast network of volunteers whom he is counting on to help him get what he wants out of Congress - supporters who worked explicitly for "change."

Tom Bethany, 22, is an Obama voter who briefly ran the Obama campus campaign organization at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. He says he's worried about the abundance of people with ties to the Clinton White House landing jobs.

"I think Obama's message of change could very easily be lost,'' Bethany said, "if he picks the same people who've been running in Washington and promising the same things for years . . . There are a lot of young Democrats I know who wanted change and wanted something different."

James Lautzenheiser, 27, an Obama volunteer from Ohio, is also dubious.

"It seems as though the more that these Cabinet positions get filled by Clinton-era folks, (the more) we lose the possibility for change,'' Lautzenheiser said. "If all this is just going to be a third Clinton term, then should we expect a reemergence of another Bush next time around to repeal all the progress?"

Still, the list grows. On the economic team, several Clinton veterans are in the mix. CBO Director Peter Orszag is the possible budget director. Jacob "Jack" Lew could have a post on the National Economic Council. Daniel Tarullo may land there, too.

And in an anxiously awaited pick, Clinton Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers has been mentioned frequently for Obama's Treasury Secretary.

The fact that such positions are still up in the air makes it too early to guess the actual impact of a Clinton reunion, says Republican Holtz-Eakin.

"Key appointments haven't happened yet," he said. "The question is, 'What will he choose to do?'"

Mukasey alert after collapsing Thursday

2008-11-21T12:43:00Z

by Frank James (updated at 12:36 pm with Mukasey statement)

Good news this morning on Attorney General Michael Mukasey. He's reportedly alert and communicating after having what at first sounded like a stroke Thursday evening while giving a speech to a conservative lawyers group at a Washington hotel.

The Justice Department's Pete Carr, acting public affairs director, issued the following statement.

"At the conclusion of his remarks before the Federalist Society Annual Dinner in Washington, D.C., Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey collapsed.

"Upon his collapse, emergency first aid was rendered by the Attorney General's security detail and a doctor who was on the scene.

"The Attorney General arrived at George Washington University Hospital shortly thereafter.

"The Attorney General is conscious, conversant and alert. His vital statistics are strong and he is in good spirits. He is receiving excellent care and appreciates all of the good wishes and prayers he has received. The doctors will keep him overnight for further observations.

"We will update the public when we have additional information."

]]> --- Update ---

Mukasey issued a statement this morning to Justice employees:

To all DOJ employees:

Dear Colleagues,

As you may have heard, I collapsed briefly last night at the conclusion of a speech. All tests at the hospital have come back with good results, and I feel fine. Accordingly, I plan to report to the Department this afternoon and to continue doing the work I swore to do last November and which it has been an honor to do with you ever since.

Thank you for your good wishes and your good work. It has been and remains an honor to serve with you.

# # #

Fannie, Freddie suspend foreclosures

2008-11-21T12:29:00Z

by Frank James

Put this one in the too little, too late file. As the Associated Press reports:

WASHINGTON -- Mortgage finance companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are suspending foreclosures for about 16,000 households during the holiday season.

The companies said Thursday that they will halt foreclosure sales between Wednesday and Jan. 9, while they evaluate whether borrowers qualify for a loan modification program announced last week.

Fannie Mae said about 10,000 households would be affected, and Freddie Mac said the changes would affect about 6,000 borrowers who are facing foreclosure.

When the economy is in part being pulled down by an estimated three million foreclosures, a temporary suspension of foreclosures for 16,000 homeowners just underscores how impotent so many of the federal actions have been to date.

Obama should be in White House sooner

2008-11-21T12:15:00Z

by William Neikirk

The time has come to take another look at the 20th amendment to the U.S. constitution that established Jan. 20 as the date for newly elected presidents to take office.

President-elect Barack Obama is having to wait more than two months before taking charge as the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression rages. He has said little while a lame-duck president and divided Congress try to cope.

With businesses failing and jobs declining while economic gloom spreads, the country feels absolutely leaderless. Divisions are deep over helping the auto industry and preventing foreclosures. Each piece of bad news builds on another and leads to fears of a devastating deflation.

With deep stock market plunges, a sense of urgency exists. Yet there can be no new president for another two months, a man by the way who won the election because of his stands on the economic issue.

]]> With time on his hands, Obama has yet to name his top economic team, although the nation might be assured with the announcement. True, the president-elect is working closely with the Bush transition team, but that's not the same as having the new leader take over and take charge.

Before the 20th amendment was adopted in the 1930s, presidents took office in March. That was clearly too long. Now, in a 24-hour news cycle and a globalized world where communications flash around the planet in seconds, the Jan. 20 date seems obsolete, too.

Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Franklin D. Roosevelt also had to cool their heels for months after their elections, despite emergency situations.

It seems strange to have Obama sitting there in Chicago for so long with so much going on. It leaves the lame-duck government in place entirely too long. Dec. 1 might be a much better inauguration date in times like this.

Swamp Sunrise

2008-11-21T12:07:50Z

Dems to auto execs: no plan, no money

2008-11-20T21:32:00Z

by Frank James

Congressional Democrats have volleyed the auto-bailout ball back into the Big Three automakers' court.

Lawmakers asked the auto industry chieftains who appeared on Capitol Hill this week to provide a plan by early December of what they would do with the $25 billion they sought

It was a sign that the automakers clearly hurt their efforts to get taxpayer money to tide them over by not being able to adequately answer lawmaker questions on how they would spend the money. Nor could they offer assurances that they wouldn't be back for more money.

Explaining Congress's unwillingness to give the automakers what they wanted, Sen. Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, said:

The main reason is what we've all witnessed in the congressional hearings this week. The executives of the auto companies have not been able to convince the Congress or the American people that this government bailout will be its last.

In light of the importance of this issue, to all of us, we have decided, the best way to proceed is to give the auto companies another opportunity to make their case, make their case to Congress and to the American people.

]]> We're requesting that they submit a plan to Congress, through Chairman Frank and Chairman Dodd, no later than December 2nd. These two very able men will review the plan and if necessary hold hearings, during the week of December 2nd, to fully vet the auto industry's proposals.

We're prepared to come back into session, the week of December 8th, to help the auto industry, but only if they present a viable plan that gives us, the Congress, the confidence that taxpayers and the auto workers will be well served.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi modified a line from the movie from the movie "Jerry Maguire" to make the same point.

It is all about accountability and about viability. Until we can see a plan where the auto industry is held accountable and a plan for viability on how they go into the future -- until we see the plan, until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money. And that is really where we are with this.

And let there be no doubt, getting busted for flying to Washington on their private jets definitely wasn't a good move.

Reid said:

What happened here in Washington this week has not been good for the auto industry. I know it wasn't planned, but these guys flying in their big corporate jets doesn't send a good message to people in Searchlight, Nevada, or Las Vegas or Reno or any place in this country. We want them to get their act together. We want them to come up with something. We are here to help. We're not against the auto industry. We want to help those people keep those jobs. And yes, we're kicking the can down the road because that will give us the opportunity to do something positive. But that will only happen if they get their act together.

Sounds like the auto executives should book those December commercial flights now.

Ted Stevens' swan song

2008-11-20T20:41:00Z

by Frank James

Sen. Ted Stevens gave his valedictory speech on the Senate floor today. The 85-year old who holds the record as the longest-serving Republican senator in history said repeatedly stressed his love for and sense of duty to Alaska.

He said:

And home is where the heart is... If that is so I have two homes. One is right here in this chamber and the other is my beloved state of Alaska. Alaska and the Senate. I must leave one to return to the other."

He also said:

"My motto has been here, to hell with politics. Just do what is right for Alaska. And I've tried everyday to live up to those words."

Oh yes, he did say he hopes to clear the cloud caused by his conviction for lying on his federal financial disclosure forms which helped lead to his defeat this week by Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich.

Emanuel extends hand to Republicans

2008-11-20T20:18:22Z

by Jill Zuckman

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.), the incoming chief of staff for President-elect Obama, met on Capitol Hill Thursday with the House and Senate GOP leaders to tell Republicans that the new president wants to hear their ideas and to work with them.

"We welcome their ideas and their concepts," said Emanuel, who similarly reached out to Republicans after he helped Democrats take back control of the House in 2006. "The challenges facing the country require that people of both parties work together to solve those problems."

Emanuel called his first meeting with Senate Republican leaders "very, very, very good" and said he was talking to them at the direction of Obama. Emanuel has also held individual meetings with House Republicans and estimated he had spoken by phone with at least 20 other Republicans.

"The challenges for the country are large. The problems we face are of a serious magnitude and there's enough area and enough good will for ideas from both parties to solve those challenges," Emanuel said.

Obama inaugural = teeming masses

2008-11-20T20:12:00Z

The stored-value card Washington, D.C.'s mass-transit system will begin selling Friday, Nov. 21, 2008 to commemorate President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration.

by Frank James

Many people who live and work in the Washington, D.C. area have been closely following stories in the local media about what we're likely to face on Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, 2009.

There are estimates that as many as four million people will descend on downtown Washington to try and witness history, to see either the inauguration of the first African-American president or the parade to the White House.

For those who have to work that day and don't live right downtown or are used to driving in and don't have a hotel room or space at a friend's house lined up, the question has been "How do I get downtown that day?"

Fortunately, the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority which runs the city's mass transit system said today that it will run the city's subway and bus system on a rush- hour basis from 4 am to 7 pm.

]]> And they unveiled a new commemorative SmarTrip card bearing President-elect Barack Obama's photo that will be available starting Friday. But they're likely to go fast since only 35,000 of them will be produced. I'm guessing there'll be huge demand for them to print up more of those hard-plastic cards.

The Washington Post's "Inauguration Watch" has these details:

Metro is expecting to move 1.6 million people on rail and bus on Inauguration Day, which would double the previous high of 854,638 (rail only) on July 11. The authority will issue 35,000 SmarTrip commemorative cards with a picture of Barack Obama, which can be purchased for $10 apiece on a special Web site that will be set up Friday and can be found by going to www.wmata.com. (Regular fare cards also will feature Obama.) Commuters can then add value to the cards, which will come with no value, at the stations, and move quickly through the fare gates.

Catoe said people trying to get into train stations after the parade could face delays of "up to a couple hours" at the end of the day. Metro is encouraging people to spread out their trips after the events are over by visiting downtown museums or grabbing something to eat.

Worth noting is that the number of people Metro expects to move that day is actually more than the 1.2 million people who showed up for President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 inaugural, the biggest inauguration crowd on record.

According to a Post story from earlier this week, city officials are sure they can pull off the Obama inaugural with all its expected teeming masses.

District and federal officials... expressed confidence that they can handle this January's events. At the same time, they know that Inauguration Day 2009 will be one of a kind.

For example, (Mayor Adrian) Fenty said, officials expect people to camp overnight, starting Jan. 19, to get as close as possible to the swearing-in viewing area and parade route.

The next several weeks will be spent figuring out how to change the comprehensive playbook that has been used in the past.

"We have a great blueprint from years past, and we will follow that," the mayor said. "But we will start to make exceptions and deviations because, by everyone's estimation, we will have crowds that will be two, three, maybe even four times as large as the largest inaugural. . . . One of the biggest exceptions would be to open up the Mall."

Officials are talking about opening large sections of the Mall east of the Washington Monument, a space normally used for staging the many components of the inaugural parade, Fenty said. That would make the Mall a viewing area that experts said could accommodate several million people -- significantly more than in the past. Officials have not said where the parade groups will gather instead.

Fire Limbaugh and his ilk: columnist

2008-11-20T19:08:00Z

by Frank James

Many Republicans have been rethinking what their party should do to regain its political mojo.

Morton Kondracke has a provocative column today in which he says the GOP needs to essentially chew off its leg. That leg would be conservative broadcasters who have done so much over the years to rally the conservative base.

According to Kondracke they are not only expendable, they are dangerous to Republican prospects because they have set an agenda that has been destructive to the Republican party's prospects.

But Step One is to fire Rush Limbaugh and his ilk as the intellectual bosses of the GOP. They shouldn't be muzzled, as some liberals want to do by reviving the "fairness doctrine" in broadcasting, just ignored more frequently.

In recent years, Republicans have let right-wing talk show hosts whip the GOP base into frenzies -- over immigration, brain-damage victim Terry Schiavo and same-sex marriage -- that have branded the party as troglodyte.

The result is that the demographic groups representing the future of American politics shifted decisively to the Democratic Party in 2008 -- Latinos, young people, the well-educated, moderates, working women, first-time voters, suburbanites and seculars."

]]> Kondracke's other ideas are for Republicans to work with President-elect Barack Obama and congressional Democrats so long as the Democrats stay in the political center. And Republican governors should show that they can solve real problems which could go a long way towards winning over pragmatists of all political stripes.

But it's Kondracke's proposal for conservatives to ignore Limbaugh that is the one that will get the most attention. Other Republicans have recommended this over the years and it hasn't happened yet. Maybe, this time will be different. Unfortunately for Kondracke, his side of the Republican Party doesn't have nearly the platform of a Limbaugh or Sean Hannity.