The Transition Begins, Poorly Lit
The first public briefing by America's new shadow government took place, appropriately enough, in a basement. Not just any basement, mind you, but the basement of an undistinguished rectangular building in the heart of the unremarkable office grid that is known as the nation's capital. The lighting was dim, the walls were gray, and John Podesta, the fidgety organization man who is helping to oversee Barack Obama's presidential transition effort, did not wear a tie.
Aesthetics didn't matter because this was a "pen and pad" briefing, which is a term of art that harks back to the days of teletype machines and men's hats, if not parchment and quill pens. In practice, it means that journalists are allowed to come with digital recorders, laptops and other sundry writing equipment. Cameras of the still and video variety are verboten; the only pictures permitted must be painted in words. (Seven American flags hung in the back of the room, and Podesta, a slight man who talks as if he consumes only Diet Coke, held his arms on a small podium, with microphones that broadcast his words out to journalists around the country listening in on a live conference call feed.)
As odd as the setting seemed, the process of presidential transition is even stranger. Obama, Podesta and their team must build a government in just 77 days, if you count both New Year's and Christmas. At the first briefing about this process Tuesday, Podesta said that he expects to spend about $12 million on the effort, most of which will be paid for by private donations from individuals who are not registered lobbyists in sums of $5,000 or less. (Congress kicks in $5.2 million to the effort.) All that money will pay for about 450 staff in Chicago and D.C. offices to do reviews of the major federal agencies, create dossiers on potential appointments, and otherwise set up the personnel for the future of the U.S. government, which included in 2004, 15 secretaries, 24 deputy secretaries, more than 275 assistant secretaries and more than 2,500 additional presidential appointees not subject to Senate confirmation.
So who is going where? Podesta did not say. He did suggest that reporters could stakeout buildings in both Chicago and Washington with binoculars. "Are you telling us how to do our job?" asked one reporter in jest. "You could make it easier," called out another. Upon hearing these remarks, Podesta offered a modest smile, though there is no documentary evidence of this smile, since cameras of all sorts were not allowed in the room.
Podesta did say the process would move fast, and that he was concerned about getting people appointed and confirmed in time to have a functioning government come February. (For example, the FCC is going to have to oversee the switch to digital television signals a few weeks after the inauguration, an event that will be made more difficult if there is no one running the agency.)
Podesta also announced a new conflict-of-interest policy for the people who will be working on the transition. The most important part is this: Lobbyists cannot work on the transition in any subject area for which they have registered to lobby in the last year, which suggests either that the Obama team plans to eschew lobbyist expertise, or hire a bunch of oil lobbyists to structure the Department of Education. Someone asked Podesta about the concern that he might be leaving those people with the most expertise about how government functions out in the cold. "So be it," said Podesta.
Some minutes later, after he had taken his final question, Podesta attempted to quickly exit the briefing room through a back door, a deft move that would allow him to avoid further interaction with reporters, including a pesky member of the foreign press who was trying to hand him a business card. But the back door would not budge, requiring a quick change of plans. "Okay, we're locked out," Podesta announced. "I have to run the gauntlet here." And so Podesta fearlessly headed straight through the crowd of more than 100 reporters, showing exactly the sort of mental and physical dexterity that will be required of him over the next 10 weeks. The only pity is that no pictures were made to commemorate the man in action.
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Well I don't know if I have a clear picture of what went on in the basement but I have a real clear picture of you. I don't think that's the way it is supposed to be MS but you managed to paint the process as everything from sinister to incompetent. Only at the very end did I get a sense that the leader of the transition team was at least determined. I know you personally prefer the GOP and McCain in particular, but get over it they did not win -- please tell me that your sole job will not be to try to tear down this administration for the next 4 years? Are you telling me that you believe these people are incompetent? And aisde from the bad lighting tell me you have more that the terrible office space that is official Washington.
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Nice piece, Michael. Very nice.
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Gee, thanks, Mikey. I feel so very much better informed now.
Did this meet your "minimum weekly blog posting requirement" for now?
Waste of electrons.
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I'd suggest you spend the time you have in the next 77 days in helping to reform your party.
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I'd be willing to bet my right eye tooth (my left was jsut pulled!) that you could actually help that particular process along in a constructive way.
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That is, provided you show some backbone and acatually call a cat a cat, a bird a bird, a bullet a bullet, and a "Traditionalist" a... -
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I didn't get the "sinister and incompetent." I thought it was a fascinating, vividly-written, straight ahead piece without his customary gratuitous Democrat-bashing. Different strokes, I guess.
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Podesta, a slight man who talks as if he consumes only Diet Coke
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Michael Scherer approached the task of writing like a Dadaist approaches a concrete slab, with a skateboard in hand and a glint in his eye. -
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For what it's worth, I found the post entertaining. I'll also add that there are many areas where 'expertise' is vastly overrated.
If we've been promised anything it NOT "more of the same." -
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Can someone explain what Mr. Sherer is trying here? Aside from the archly connotative language ('shadow government") and the implication the new administration stems from a gray, undistinguished and old-fashioned place and doesn't respect the media (They didn't allow video. We get it)he goes out of his way to bury the lede (no lobbyist in the transition).
And Podesta, a slight man who talks as if he consumes only Diet Coke, what the hell does THAT mean?
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Tough crowd, here.
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James, LA, I will grant that it is a vividly written piece, orders of magnitude better than his usual "GOP Transcript and Run" work.
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But I feel it got a little frilly (as I point out above), and there were a few notions I didn't care for, like:
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The most important part is this: Lobbyists cannot work on the transition in any subject area for which they have registered to lobby in the last year, which suggests either that the Obama team plans to eschew lobbyist expertise, or hire a bunch of oil lobbyists to structure the Department of Education.
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Am I to understand, then, that Scherer doesn't care for the notion of divorcing special interests from our politics?
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And, given MS's history of reporting here, are these really the only two explanations? Or just the only two that he could cudgel his brain into divulging? -
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Michael Scherer:
No matter what you do, the DK-style posters here are going to call you a GOP plant. So, why not fill a market gap and be one for real?
For instance, you could point out all the problems with the BHO explanation for his "civilian force". Or, you could point out the problems with Podesta's group, namely that when it comes to think tanks they're just one step up from this one: hardinginstitute.org
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the Obama team plans to eschew lobbyist expertise
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No phrase better encapsulates the Village. -
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davemc321: THANK YOU (on the Diet Coke thing).
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I kinda thought that that "shadow government" crack was a bit negative, since that is not what the transition team does. His descriptions are rather negative, lots of secrecy and evile mechanations implied, I see.
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The main complaint MS seems to have is that he cannot take pictures.
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Oh! The pavarazzi! -
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MS of Time magazine was forced against his will to put down his laptop and digital recorder and actually take notes. OMG the humanity.
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"Tough crowd, here."
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The trolls are gone. We're hongry. We gotta eats somthing! -
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The press at its worst. MS is really "bitter". Why not take a voluntary payout and go work at the National review.
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I see the black helicopters have returned.
It's going to be a looong 8 years,
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MS, good post.
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Cliff, the lobbyist thing is a joke.
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davemc321, it means that he's wired in a legal, vaguely adolescent way. So no cocaine. -
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Cliff, I'm with you on MS's "history" as a barbecue-licking McCain campaign operative.
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The lobbyist ban, well, I read that over at TPM and roundly support it. I thought that MS was doing a little irony humor there rather than passing judgment. I think it was a pretty good straight reporting job, descriptive with a little humor which is appropriate for a blog or a magazine. Hell. I found nothing offensive in the piece at all. Well look, Podesta IS a slight and slightly wired up guy. I think he'd pretty much chuckle at that description. I was looking at it as more of a pool report style piece and didn't expect him to be promoting or bashing Dems, which he wasn't, in my view. It was a great first look at how the 77-day sausage is being made.
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I read the complete ethics statement, and was very impressed. Not everyone who has expertise chooses to peddle it on K street, so I'm not worried. (I was going to use another term for selling ones --ahem -- wares on the street, but figured this was more filter-safe.)
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Cliff, I'm with you on MS's "history" as a barbecue-licking McCain campaign operative.
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The lobbyist ban, well, I read that over at TPM and roundly support it. I thought that MS was doing a little irony humor there rather than pa$$ing judgment. I think it was a pretty good straight reporting job, descriptive with a little humor which is appropriate for a blog or a magazine. Hell. I found nothing offensive in the piece at all. Well look, Podesta IS a slight and slightly wired up guy. I think he'd pretty much chuckle at that description. I was looking at it as more of a pool report style piece and didn't expect him to be promoting or bashing Dems, which he wasn't, in my view. It was a great first look at how the 77-day sausage is being made. -
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Cliff, I'm with you on MS's "history" as a barbecue-licking McCain campaign operative.
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The lobbyist ban, well, I read that over at TPM and roundly support it. I thought that MS was doing a little irony humor there rather than pa$$ing judgment. I think it was a pretty good straight reporting job, descriptive with a little humor which is appropriate for a blog or a magazine. He11. I found nothing offensive in the piece at all. Well look, Podesta IS a slight and slightly wired up guy. I think he'd pretty much chuckle at that description. I was looking at it as more of a pool report style piece and didn't expect him to be promoting or bashing Dems, which he wasn't, in my view. It was a great first look at how the 77-day sausage is being made. -
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Cliff, the lobbyist thing is a joke.
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davemc321, it means that he's wired in a legal, vaguely adolescent way. So no cocaine.
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!!!
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Quickly, what stocks should I bet on? If we could just tap your psychic powers we could all be millionaires! (Or does it only apply to Michael Scherer posts?) -
25
Rose, shouldn't jokes be funny?
- michaelscherer Speaking of Mars, these may be the best lyrics of any non-Dylan song: http://bit.ly/4nfnz5 - 49 minutes ago
- michaelscherer Mars is super cool. http://bit.ly/4b0IBH - 1 hour ago
- michaelscherer My favorite newish piece of political rhetoric in Obama's speech today: "waxing political." Sort of like waxing lyrical, except not. - 5 hours ago
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