Why I’m Not a Fan of Hillary as SoS

Because of reports like these:

Both sides were engaged in a delicate public and private dance, maneuvering for position and reputation in case the deal falls through. Aides in each camp have grown increasingly sour toward the other in recent days as the matter played out publicly.

In their public signals, the Clintons are trying to take the former president’s activities off the table as an issue, in their view eliminating any excuses for Mr. Obama not to give Mrs. Clinton the job. Some in the Obama camp are bristling at what they see as strategic leaks by the Clintons aimed at boxing in the president-elect and forcing him to offer the post.

The tension could foreshadow a complex relationship burdened by suspicion and enmity should Mrs. Clinton become secretary of state. By putting her in the cabinet, Mr. Obama could remove a potential thorn in the Senate on issues like health care and a potential rival for the nomination in 2012 if his term proves rocky. But he could also face a rival power center within his own administration with her on his team.

I don’t care how big they are within the party – the Clintons = drama, and I think that in the primaries the Democrats made it resoundingly clear that the party needs to shed the drama and move forward.  Skilled in policy details and respected around the world she may be, but I don’t see the benefits of having her at State outweighing the dramatic fallout that is already building up around another Clinton, and she hasn’t even been selected yet.

Bush Prepares to Take One Last Dump on the Country

Mr. 25% has no shame at all:

Whether it’s relaxing pollution control standards for power plants or allowing loaded weapons into national parks, the Bush Administration is scrambling to approve or change as many federal rules as it can before it hands off power to President-elect Barack Obama.

What’s worse is that undoing these last-minute policy changes isn’t so easy:

While executive orders and rules that are not yet in effect can swiftly be reversed or altered by Obama’s appointees or his own executive orders, rules that go into effect before he takes office will be extremely difficult to undo. Rescinding a rule would require the new administration to re-start the rule-making process, which can take years and prompt legal challenges. Another strategy that has been talked about lately – getting Congress to disapprove the rules through the Congressional Review Act — carries political risks and has been used only once before.

“The problem with what the Bush administration is doing is that these rules are extremely cumbersome to adopt, and they are every bit as cumbersome to undo,” said David Vladeck, an administrative law professor at Georgetown University. “It condemns the next administration to spend years fighting on the old administration’s agenda.”

…

Getting rid of a rule that is already in effect is enormously difficult, because it must be replaced with another rule. That process can take months or even years and could leave some of the Bush rules in place in the meantime. It can also lead to lawsuits.

So despite the fact that Democrats won big on November 4, the ghost of George Bush could potentially linger on for years to come, no matter what President Obama’s intentions may be.  And we’re not talking about minor bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo that doesn’t affect everyday folks.  Here’s a nice list being assembled of Bush’s last-ditch attempts to fuck up the state of our nation even more.  Uranium mining near the Grand Canyon?  Sure, why the hell not!  That won’t affect the Colorodo River, which serves as a source of drinking water for Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Los Angeles, will it?  Oh, and we can go ahead and let pharmacists refuse to dispense Plan B to a promiscuous teenager who clearly doesn’t fear Jesus enough to have known better.  I know it’s common practice for the outgoing administration to try to ram through their last-minute pet policies through federal agencies; Bill Clinton did it too in 2000.  But the point here is that George Bush is now the most unpopular president in the history of Gallup polling, and the last thing he can do to salvage any respect and at least attempt to leave the White House with some sort of positive legacy is to keep his dangerous and out-of-the-mainstream right-wing desires to himself and not hamper the incoming administration with a burden that it won’t have the time to deal with.  It’s high time that President Bush start acting like a team player.