Bush's Land Mines for Obama...today's LA Times

[CaliforniaPeggy]

A cautionary tale for Obama...and us.

Rosa Brooks
November 20, 2008

You knew that W & Co. wouldn't go gently into that good night, didn't you?

Please. We're talking about the people who brought us precooked intelligence, Guantanamo, torture and extraordinary rendition. Who developed bizarre legal doctrines, asserting that the commander in chief is allowed to ignore federal law, and the vice president doesn't "belong" to the executive branch. Who enthusiastically dismantled long-standing regulatory frameworks and who still insist (as George W. Bush did last week) that "too much" government regulation is our main problem, even as the economic crisis deepens.

You really didn't think these guys would exit meekly, did you?

Don't expect anything undignified, like a Cheney-engineered coup (sorry, conspiracy theorists). But the administration can -- and will -- hamstring the incoming Obama team just as effectively with a raft of poisonous eleventh-hour rules and regulations.

Pick your issue. The environment? A Bush administration rule transmitted on Nov. 4 hands over responsibility for assessing the environmental impact of federal ocean management decisions to advisory councils made up primarily of people tied to the commercial fishing industry -- who often have a financial stake in the outcome. Workers' rights? A new rule (effective Jan. 18) would limit workers' ability to take leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

More at link:
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks20-2008nov20,0,4071453.column

[Xipe Totec]

1. This is why Clinton administration veterans are needed.

Continuing to quote from the article:

This, incidentally, is why -- contrary to some net-roots hopes -- Clinton administration veterans also won't be going gently into that good night. "Change" is great, but it is difficult to implement when you're constantly stepping on bureaucratic land mines. Obama needs people who understand the federal rule-making process, who know why the Office of Management and Budget can halt the secretary of State's best-laid plans, who know which obscure Justice Department offices are the likely repository of crucial information, and who can undertake a rapid bureaucratic de-mining operation. And virtually the only Democrats under 65 who know these things are Clinton administration veterans.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. Exactly right, my dear Xipe Totec!

She makes some excellent points for bringing the Clinton people on board...

[FrenchieCat]

3. Bookmarking this thread for those calling not for change,

but for everything brand new.

Obama's call for change was about a change of attitude and policy....not everything single thing there is.

Folks demanding everything New know nothing about very little.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. Thank you, my dear FrenchieCat...

[Mz Pip]

20. And where is the best place to draw

from when looking for people who have experience dealing with the ins and outs and dirty dealings of BushCo and the Repugs? The Clinton administration. These people know how the scumbags on the other side of the aisle operate.

Obama has a vsion for change, but he also needs people who know how slimy the GOP can be. New won't cut it here. To get to that change Obama has to be able to cut through the crap. WHy start from scratch when there are seasoned players out there ready, willing and able to do just that?

[stillcool]

26. yeah really..the blind..

leading the blind will surely bring about change, but I doubt it would be any change I would want to see. I like that whole idea about a competent government myself.

[sharp_stick]

5. And they will be needed

right away. You can bet that it's going to take a long time to undo the shit wrought by the current misadministration. I can't believe how much damage that sub-moronic asshole has been able to do in eight years.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Well, the bushbots operated freely, under cover of secrecy...

And with those conditions, a lot of damage can be done...

Obama has energy, and intelligence, and people who know how to counteract all this, so even though it'll take a long time, I expect he'll clean it up OK, eventually.

[BrklynLiberal]

7. and BushCo has two more months to do even more evil and lay landmines.

:scared:

He will need all the help and intelligence that he can get.. Experience being the most important asset at this time.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

8. He knows where to go for experience...

And remember, he is very smart...

I'm sure that if Rosa Brooks knows this stuff, he knows more!

[BrklynLiberal]

14. The only word that comes to mind for this is SABOTAGE.

[Benhurst]

17. TREASON is another.

[BrklynLiberal]

18. Yopu are right. They are trying to undermine what the voters wanted.

[Cha]

9. Rec'd~ this article lays out a lot

of what the bushits have been guilty of over the last eight years..drunk on power and raiding the United States of America. Killing many people who would still be alive today if it weren't for the fascist coup of 2000 with the corporatemedia complicit.

They must feel confident that there will be no retaliation for their actions.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. Thanks for the rec!

I think when this sort of information becomes more widely known, then the chances for retaliation increase.

[Cha]

12. Exactly! You

got my drift.:)

[symbolman]

11. Most of the Bush admin should be given a fair trial

and then Hung from Lamp posts by the Public, from one end of this country to the other..

I can think of a few heads that should grace Spikes on the fence of the White House.. Of course it's all fantasy, these Traitors will walk, scot free.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

15. I'm afraid you're right...

We can hope, though, can't we?

[symbolman]

32. I would consider that Pay Per View :)

they could pay off the National Debt with a Series of Trials and executions all the way up to the Rove/Bush/Cheney Hague Suicide Watch secret online cameras :)

[BrklynLiberal]

13. ..and here is a companion article...Bush's booby traps for Obama

The Bush administration is leaving behind foreign policy tripwires that could blow up on the next president.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-brooks30-2008oct30,0,1777682.column

[CaliforniaPeggy]

16. I must have missed that one...

She's such a good writer!

Thanks for the link...

[Lionel Mandrake]

19. Midnight regulations are nothing new.

Every incoming president complains about them. Every outgoing president adds them. But W's are worse than most.

Here are some excerpts from an article by Elizabeth Kolbert in the November 24, 2008 issue of The New Yorker:

Now, of course, Bush has entered into his own midnight period, and it promises to be a dark time indeed. Among the many new regulations—or, rather, deregulations—the Administration has proposed are rules that would: make it harder for the government to limit workers’ exposure to toxins, eliminate environmental review from decisions affecting fisheries, and ease restrictions on companies that blow up mountains to get at the coal underneath them. Other midnight regulations in the works include rules to allow “factory farms” to ignore the Clean Water Act, rules making it tougher for employees to take family or medical leave, and rules that would effectively gut the Endangered Species Act. Most regulations are subject to public input; such is the sense of urgency that the Administration has brought to the task of despoliation that the Interior Department completed its “review” of two hundred thousand public comments on the endangered-species rules in just four days, a feat that, one congressional aide calculated, required each staff member involved to read through comments at the rate of seven per minute. “So little time, so much damage” is how the Times recently put it.

For the whole article, browse

http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/11/24/081124taco_talk_kolbert

[CaliforniaPeggy]

21. Thank you for your intelligent post!

I had not realized that midnight regulations were something that have gone on for a long time...

And of course the New Yorker has put together a list that would take your breath away...

If you had any left to give, that is.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

22. Yes but....

One advantage for Obama is that, unlike Clinton, he has the benefit of having had a Democratic Administration in office relatively recently. I know Obama is being panned by many here for hiring so many Clinton aides but the reality is that many of the people who worked in the Clinton Administration witnessed the worst excesses in terms of political minefields that the Republicans threw at them and will be able to advise Obama on how not to get bogged down in them

Anyway, how effective were the last minute rules and regulations that Clinton put into effect during his final hours in office? * and his Republican controlled Congress were able to overturn them in no time. And Obama has a much larger senate majority than * ever did

[CaliforniaPeggy]

23. My dear socialdemocrat1981!

Yes, your points are on the money! And I hope that these will all work out so that so much of the damage that * is doing will quickly be undone...

Thanks for contributing!

[electricD]

24. Doesn't Obama

have the legal right to post veto or whatever the correct terminology for it, for any laws or regulations that the former president put into action in the final 100 days or so?

If I'm remembering my 9th grade civics classes right(25 yrs ago). I thought that the new president could write out or disallow anything that the former president had proposed or tried to put into action, on his way out.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

25. Welcome to the discussion!

You know, I'm not sure about this...

Being much further from my 9th grade civics class, alas!

Let's hope you're right...

Welcome to DU!

[electricD]

31. thanks

thanks very much. I lurked in the shadows for almost 2 years before I finally took a plunge and decided to start giving my .02 cents worth. I don't know if it's worth very much sometimes but, I've gotta vent somewhere. Might as well be here.:toast:

[stillcool]

27. I think the signing statements..

can all be rescinded, and that Presidents usually do this kind of stuff on their way out the door. I remember when Bush came into office he did away with different things Clinton did with public lands and conservation. Don't know the legalese..just sounds familiar.

[bluesbassman]

28. The future should not be about "retaliation" for b*sh.

It should be about JUSTICE. For the past eight long years we have seen criminality in the executive branch unparalleled in our nation's history. To let these crimes go unpunished is not "good for the country" and certainly will not aid in healing our collective ills. We are facing the fallout from unprecedented treason, greed, and fraud in both government and commerce. How in the world can we expect to hold the corporate criminals accountable if we refuse to hold our elected leaders accountable?

No, there is nothing about prosecuting b*sh & co that is retaliatory to me. It is the rule of law in a civilized society that must be enforced. If it is not, I'm afraid we'll be seeing this all again in the near future.

BTW, nice catch Peggy! Rec'd.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

29. My dear bluesbassman!

Thanks!

I do get the LA Times, and I saw her column today...

Pretty easy, if you ask me!

I pretty much think that retaliation and justice are nearly equivalent, in this case at least...

However, I agree about prosecuting the lot of them. The rule of law is paramount. Or should be.

[bluesbassman]

30. Agreed.

I think some people get a little confused about what exactly is "good for the country", and that is where the use of "retaliation" muddies the water. AL Gore NOT pressing for ALL of the votes to be counted and fighting to the end certainly was NOT "good for the contry". Democrats in Congress rubber stamping b*sh's appointments was NOT "good for the country". We all can cite our favorite (our least favorite, as the case may be) example of what proved to NOT be "good for the country" in the last eight years where it comes the b*sh & co.

My point though, is that we need to be very clear that prosecuting b*sh, et al. for their crimes may very well provide a just feeling of retaliation, but that is not the motivation. The motivation is that we must return to the rule of law, and it must begin at the top. Anything less will continue breeding the same behavior.

[political_Dem]

33. Well, that was the parting gift delivered in spiked wrapping paper.

That alone demonstrates the foulness of Bush's character especially in the wake of the dog and pony show he conducted in terms of inviting the Obamas to the White House.

That bit of nastiness in terms of the legislation was the man's piece de resistance of how ruthless he can truly be.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

34. Indeed...

A man may smile, and smile, and yet be a villain.

To paraphrase Shakespeare...

His true character comes out when nobody's looking...