The "Yes We Can" Movement Gets Sudden Reality Check!

As much as I appreciate passion and politics, the "yes we can" movement honestly made me a bit uncomfortable during the last year. OK -- very uncomfortable. To me, the movement (distinct from its leader), displayed a very naive understanding of the dynamics and complexity of true political change. In a very short time, however, it appears that Washington, DC -- the bastion of status quo preservation -- is delivering healthy and much needed reality checks to "pie in the sky" members of the cult of change. What are the signs?

* The withdrawal of Tom Daschle, one of Obama's chief supporters.

* The Republicans controlling much of the debate on the stimulus package - despite being heavily outnumbered in Congress and highly unpopular, according to most opinion polls.

* The vast majority of the public not supporting the stimulus in its current form (though it's the form largely advocated by the president).

* Obama will employ a kinder, gentler "rendition" program (also known as governmental kidnapping).

* And perhaps the most probative evidence comes from Maureen Dowd. Dowd, who for the last year has been stridently anti-Clinton and effusively pro-Obama, has finally employed her spiteful and acidic writing style to analyze the president. Here's a short quote from her latest smarmy essay:

It took Daschle’s resignation to shake the president out of his arrogant attitude that his charmed circle doesn’t have to abide by the lofty standards he lectured the rest of us about for two years.

Before he recanted, his hand forced by a cascade of appointees who “forgot” to pay taxes, his reasoning was creeping perilously close to that of the outgoing leaders he denounced in his Inaugural Address: that elitist mentality of “we know best,” we know we’re doing the “right” thing for the country, so we can twist the rules.

Mr. Obama’s errors on the helter-skelter stimulus package were also self-induced. He should put down those Lincoln books and order “Dave” from Netflix.

She's baaaack. Dowd's decision to use her chainsaw writing style has upset some Obama supporters. Michael Stickings at The Moderate Voice, for example, says that Dowd has become "unreadable," and he longs for the days when she was "exposing Bushworld as the bubble of darkness it was." Dissenting Justice to Stickings: Dowd's demise started long before The King of Hope entered the White House.

Is Ted Kennedy "Bitter" Towards Hillary Clinton?

The New York Daily News dropped a doosey today, reporting that Clinton declined an offer to chair the Senate Appropriations Committee in order to pursue the position of Secretary of State (which she will reportedly receive tomorrow). The same article reports that Ted Kennedy declined a request by some Democrats that he create a Senate subcommittee to deal with health care legislation; under the "deal," Clinton could have chaired the subcommittee. The New York Daily News article says that Kennedy rejected this arrangement due to lingering anger over Clinton's presidential campaign.

When I first read the article, I viewed Kennedy's "behavior" as a throwback to the way he reacted after losing the Democratic primaries to Carter in 1980. After Carter won, instead of helping to unify the Democrats as Clinton did, Kennedy remained as bitter as a gun-toting, Bible-clinging, homo-/xenophobic disempowered American. But then sanity overtook me, and I conducted some research on the issue and discovered that the New York Daily News article likely presents a distorted view concerning an alleged Kennedy grudge. Well, the New York Daily News is a tabloid. Why let facts or nuance get in the way of reporting?

Apparently, even though Kennedy refused to create a subcommittee on health care for Clinton to lead, he offered her a position on his new Senate health care task force, which has three working groups. Clinton would have headed the section studying insurance coverage. The Los Angeles Times, Newsday, an official press release from Senator Tom Harkin (who also has an offer to sit on the task force), and many other sources (found with a simple Google News search) confirm that Kennedy picked Clinton.

Also, his refusal to form the subcommittee to deal with the health care legislation could result, as the Associated Press reports, from his own desire to monopolize the issue (at least in the Senate), rather than from a political grudge with Clinton. As Chair of the Senate Committee on Healthcare, Kennedy probably intends to conduct Senate hearings on health-care issues himself. Having Clinton leading a subcommittee on healthcare could diminish his own voice on the subject.

Furthermore, because Obama has appointed Daschle to head the Department of Health and Human Services and to serve as a Healthcare Czar, any role in Congress on this issue would probably have been too limiting for Clinton. Her expertise on healthcare dwarfs Daschle's, but Daschle and Kennedy endorsed Obama at critical moments during the primaries. As payment, they get to play leading roles on healthcare reform. Clinton did not land too lightly, however; as "compensation" for her general-election support of Obama, Clinton will become Secretary of State.

Best Headline Ever: "Obama Team Mulls Role for Miss Lewinsky in New Administration"

Although Arianna Huffington's enormous blog is often "hit or miss," sometimes it manages to strike big with a contributor. A recent entry by Billy Kimball knocks it out of the ball park. Kimball lampoons Obama's "Clinton Cabinet" with his very provocative essay, "Obama Team Mulls Role for Miss Lewinsky in New Administration."

Here's a snippet:

Former South Dakota Senator Tom Daschle, who is expected to be nominated as
Secretary of Health and Human Services, responded to a reporter who asked about
the Lewinsky rumors by pretending to receive a cell phone call. When the
reporter took the phone from him and closed it while making a "we both know what
you're doing" facial expression, Daschle said that appointing Lewinsky would be
"like rubbing salt in the wounds of Senator Clinton at a time when we're
supposed to be in a healing process." He added that Miss Lewinsky's presence in
the White House would be "a huge distraction."

But New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who broke with the Clintons
over his endorsement of Mr. Obama, said that Lewinsky was "a fresh face" with "a
lot to offer." Richardson lost the post of Secretary of State to Senator Clinton
and is now Mr. Obama's choice for the far less prestigious job of Secretary of
Commerce. "The Obama administration should be focused on recruiting the best
people to help us address the challenges of the future and not get bogged down
in past history," he said. . . .

Monica Lewinsky was not available for comment. Through her attorney,
William Ginsburg, she released a statement, which read, in part, "I am honored
and humbled by the opportunity to serve my country again at this crucial
juncture in our history."

Wicked!

More "Change": Tom Daschle to Lead Dept. of Health and Human Services

The rumor mill continues to grind. CNN reports that Tom Daschle, a former Senator and Obama endorser, will head the Department of Health and Human Services in the new administration. Reportedly, Daschle will have the important task of pushing through Obama's health care reform agenda.

My take: I am waiting for a cabinet appointment who is not a "Washington insider" or who has not served in the Clinton administration. Actually, I am not. I just felt the need to say that, since the media will not. Honestly, I think Obama has made very wise selections. Clinton, Holder, Daschle, and the others are very capable individuals. Their selection (especially Clinton's), however, contradicts many elements of Obama's campaign message -- elements that I have always viewed with skepticism (see this article and others linked below). For the record, I typically view campaign messages with skepticism -- even when they come from candidates I support (including Obama).

My primary "beef" lies with liberals who have chosen to live in denial by refusing to acknowledge the contradictions between Obama's campaign and his early personnel decisions. So, in order to create a nuanced and more accurate historical record, I respectfully dissent from uncritical acceptance of reality.

Related readings on Dissenting Justice:

Governing In Prose: Obama's Cabinet Picks Defy Campaign Narrative That Emphasized "Hope," "Change," and "Washington-Outsider" Status

Progressives Awaken from Obama-Vegetative State

Robert Gates as Obama's Secretary of Defense: "More of the Same" for Gay Rights?