Biden Ribs Roberts, Obama Announces Changes

"He announced that administration who have registered to lobby in the last two years will not be able to work in the subject areas where they lobbied."
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Not sure what this means. "members of the administration"

"Obama also announced a change in the guidance for officials who review Freedom of Information Act requests to encourage the release of more information."
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The change is that officials have to be responsive to the request. Which is not really a change. It's following the law. Something the previous administration failed to do. But we don't want to talk about that. Let's just pretend Obama is coming up with new rules out of the blue.

There's a certain irony in Biden making a joke about someone else's gaffe. Though, Joe can laugh at himself. Or should that be Joe can laugh at himself, though?
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Refreshing to finally have an administration that wants to follow the law instead of circumvent it.

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Gunny's right, Michael. There seems to be a conspiracy forming among the DC Elite to start airbrushing the profoundly lawless nature of the Bush Administration. Am I imagining this, or is it just oversight on your part?
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It probably couldn't hurt to have Roberts tromp over to the White House to re-administer the oath correctly. Not for legal reasons, but because it's proper.

If I were the President, I'd want it to go down in history the right way.

"It probably couldn't hurt to have Roberts tromp over to the White House to re-administer the oath correctly. Not for legal reasons, but because it's proper."
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It probably would hurt because people making an issue of this really don't want it to go away and couldn't be happier with a new angle to attack from and keep it in the news.

I love this, I really do. I'm also now wondering two things:
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1. What are the anti-Obamists going to say to it?
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2. What are the staffers now going to do when they leave the White House? I always thought--as I'm sure the staffers did as well--that a lobbyist position was a given.

FOIA is somewhat analogous to habeus corpus. Without habeus, you can't challenge the government's ability to lock you up, so any other legal issues are moot. Everything is grounded in habeus.
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Without FOIA, it's impossible to know if the executive branch is following the law, which makes acts of Congress pretty much moot.
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So it's entirely appropriate (and heartening) that this was one of Obama's first acts in office.
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Also, what Gunny said.

re the flubbed oath, that's OK, I'm getting bored of the birth certificate conspiracy.

(This was a reference to Roberts' flubbing the presidential oath yesterday.)
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Well no sh!t, Sherlock.
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Otherwise, a decent post.
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But hey! Enough of this superficial crap, let's get some Guantanamo developments up in here!

There seems to be a conspiracy forming among the DC Elite to start airbrushing the profoundly lawless nature of the Bush Administration
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START? - Where have you been???!
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Indeed as Gunny points out these new directives simply reflect instruction to follow the law as written. In a sane world, it wouldn't even be necessary. None of that is to say that I don't find it exceedingly refreshing anyway and I presume Michael does as well.

Gunny, that's why a 15 minute trip from Roberts to the WH today couldn't do any harm.

Honestly, I couldn't care less about what wingnut blogs think about it. Or even if it's in the papers.

I just know that if I were POTUS, I'd want to have the oath adminsitered correctly for my own sake. I earned it dammit.

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You're right PD. I shouldn't have used the word "start." But it's not too late to "start" a conversation about it, right?
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"He will freeze the salaries of anyone making more than $100,000 in the White House. (Top staffers, including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, now make $172,200 a year.)"

What does "freeze the salaries" mean, exactly? They won't get paid? Or they won't get raises? Or their salaries will be dropped to $100k?

Lil' help??

@James,
Indeed. The FOIA, PRA and FISA are just some of the casualties of the last administration that will need to be pulled from the battlefield and treated for wounds. There will be others.

Joe Biden has a very Irish sense of humor - it's self-deprecating but can be sharp and snarky, often in a manner that makes it difficult to blame the the person saying it: i.e., If Joe's memory is worse than Roberts' then Joe's must be really bad, thus, it can be argued that it's not really a true dig at Roberts.

Nevertheless, his new boss did not look amused.

I just want to add, since I haven't posted in awhile, that every change that has been made to this website in the last 4-6 months has made the sitwe worse than it was before.
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The text is less attractive, pagination over 50 posts is asinine and counterproductive, and since I usually read this site at 150% magnification (at 30 years old am I really that blind? Do others magnify the font of blogs to make them more readable?) the page jumps all over the place with this real-time editing down below.
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I guess not every change was negative, though. The new picture of Obama is way better than the one with the Star Wars Galactic Senate backdrop in black that made him look so very dictatorial.

Cliff he did suspend the Prosecutions at Gitmo today, it must be sort of a monumental task to try and prioritize things properly right now in the White House, such a ridiculous mess to deal with.

lk312 - I noticed the same thing. The new boss also looked at the staffers snickering in the audience with a very distinct "knock it off" stare that I found refreshing. I would have been one of those snickering and it's good to be reminded that there is a new standard/tone in our government.

Thanks, MS.

The senate Republicans have decided they want to delay Holder's confirmation a week, after delaying the hearings. I'm steamed. They're nervous that Holder will prosecute those who committed war crimes. So what are they going to do - ask him to promise he won't prosecute the people they will be implicitly acknowledging are guilty of war crimes?

Michael Scherer:
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Thank you very much for responding to commentary; it is very appreciated.

Meanwhile business as usual. "Cornyn delays Holder's confirmation to make sure Bush administration isn't prosecuted for torture."

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“It could well be there will be a request to delay the markup for a week so those questions can be asked and answered,” Cornyn said. “Part of my concern relates to his statements at the hearing with regard to torture and what his intentions are toward our intelligence personnel who were operating in good faith based on their understanding of what the law was.”
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http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/21/cornyn-holder-torture/

From the Rolling Stone's Tim Dickerson: "Obama has just rescinded the rule that would have let Bush's heirs continue to claim executive privilege over his papers"
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http://www.rollingstone.com/nationalaffairs/index.php/2009/01/21/and-then-it-hits-you/