I tend to think less GOP and more hubris and arrogance driven. The 60+ questions required of each candidate, the wall they must climb - the best will not climb that wall, leaving mediocrity. In fact, not only mediocrity, but some real odd balls.
It is not the GOP who are unable to drive their own car in a line let alone offer directions for Obama, it is Obama's arrogance and hubris - and the failure of people to climb on board without a great deal of pressure (which says something about their response under pressure - rats and the ship).
JANUARY 24, 2009
Delays in Cabinet Nominations Demonstrate GOP Resolve
Wall Street Journal, A1
By JONATHAN WEISMAN
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama chose his cabinet nominees with record speed, but since his inauguration the process of securing their Senate confirmation and building his government has slowed markedly.
By the end of his first full day in office, President Bill Clinton had all but one cabinet nominee in office, even after a very rocky transition. President George W. Bush also had all but one cabinet member confirmed by the end of January 2001, despite the protracted Florida recount following the November election.
This time, Mr. Obama will start his second week without Treasury, Labor, Health and Human Services or Commerce secretaries, not to mention an attorney general to head the Justice Department. By the end of next week, Senate aides say the president may have only secured two more cabinet confirmations: Timothy Geithner at Treasury and Eric Holder at Justice.
Since President Jimmy Carter's first term, only President George H.W. Bush has had more problems than Mr. Obama on this front -- and the current president's issues have arisen after what is widely considered a smooth, quick and organized transition.
To White House aides, such comparisons are irrelevant. Mr. Obama's cabinet picks have run into some exceptional speed bumps -- for instance, a Senate Finance Committee overwhelmed by its legislative work on a record-breaking economic-stimulus plan. None of his nominees are in serious trouble or have forced the president to burn through political capital as Mr. Clinton did for Attorney General-nominee Zoe Baird, George H.W. Bush spent for Defense Department pick John Tower or his son did with John Ashcroft.
Besides, aides say, it is the speed with which the nominees were picked that counts. Mr. Geithner has been at work on economic policy since the Monday after Thanksgiving, even if his confirmation has been hung up over his past failure to pay some payroll taxes on time, they note.
But historians and Senate aides say there is more at work here. In part, Mr. Obama's lag might be evidence of some hubris from a transition that started with great pride and perhaps a little too much speed.
"It may be a bit of plain old arrogance or overconfidence," said Paul Light, a New York University expert on presidential transitions. "They're really smart people, but they seem to be underestimating the political impacts of fairly familiar problems."
Perhaps more importantly, the slow process could be a sign that the shrunken Republican Party -- with its core of determined conservatives intact -- won't be a pushover for the new president.
"We're always going to exercise our prerogatives," said Don Stewart, spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.). "We want to make sure we're part of the process."
But former Sen. Tom Daschle hasn't even been scheduled for a confirmation hearing as Health and Human Services secretary, a key position as Mr. Obama tackles health care in the budget due next month. Democratic Finance Committee aides say the holdup is in part because the committee has been hashing out the tax provisions of a stimulus package likely to exceed $825 billion. They are also working on the Senate's version of an expanded State Children's Health Insurance Program.
[Which now covers 90% of all children in the US - for those counting]
But Democratic leadership aides acknowledge more-thorny problems as well, as Republican Finance Committee aides pore over Mr. Daschle's tax returns, business ties and his connection to an education-loan provider being investigated by the committee.
Republicans are holding up the confirmation of Hilda Solis as labor secretary, saying she hasn't been forthcoming on her views about key policy matters, particularly legislation that would ease union organizing.
Ms. Solis firmly backed the bill as a House member, and Mr. Obama favors at least the concept. But Republicans strongly oppose it and are pushing for an answer in writing to gauge how important the bill would be for the Labor Department. So far, Ms. Solis has been cagey by refusing to directly answer such questions.
The hold-up with Ms. Solis is just silly, Democrats said. The president's position favoring the so-called Employee Free Choice Act -- which would allow workers to gain collective bargaining rights by signing cards rather than secret balloting -- is well known. Republicans simply want to flog her, White House aides contend.
[To read the rest of the article, click the title link]
Obama
Subscribe To
Posts
Comments