Me and My Big Mouth!
columnist: Steven McDuffie

Topic: Barack Obama
Barack Obama: The Mendacity of Hope, Pt. I

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President Barack Obama's Brain Trust appears to be composed of recycled Washington insiders from previous administrations.

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by Steven McDuffie
(libertarian)
Monday, April 27, 2009

Obama's Cabinet: Change?
Obama voters wanted change. During the election, Obama supporters made it clear that "change" not only meant a different party occupying the White House and a different direction for American foreign and domestic policy, but—by choosing Obama over Clinton in the primaries—they expressed their desire for a Washington outsider. It might be instructive to take a look at the people with whom Obama has surrounded himself:

Vice President Joe Biden: A US Senator since 1973, this Nixonian drug warrior voted for the unconstitutional Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002, and before that, the egregiously unconstitutional USA Patriot Act. His vote for the Patriot Act isn't surprising when one discovers that he proposed a bill in 1995 called the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act: a bill that was virtually identical to the Patriot Act in its particulars.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton: The wife of former two-term president, Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton has been up to her neck in Washington politics since 1992. Like Biden, she voted for the USA Patriot Act, the 2002 Iraq resolution and nearly every other liberty-stifling bill that went through the Senate from 2001-2008, including an unconstitutional and absurd vote to ban raves.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates: Involved in Washington politics since the mid-eighties, Gates is a holdover from the previous administration, former Deputy CIA Director under Reagan, and former Deputy National Security Advisor and CIA Director under President George H.W. Bush.

Attorney General Eric Holder: Former Deputy Attorney General under Bill Clinton.

Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood: Member of the US House of Representatives for 14 years.

White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel: Clinton campaign strategist and advisor.

Director of the Office of Management and Budget Peter Orszag: A Clinton Administration retread, who worked for Clinton from 1995-1998.

Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice: Longtime friend and disciple of Madeline Albright, Rice served in the Clinton administration in various capacities.

United States Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan Richard Holbrooke: Worked for the Clinton Administration in various capacities from 1993-1999.

Chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Sheila Bair: Bair is a holdover from the Bush administration.

United States Special Envoy for the Middle East George Mitchell: Involved in Washington politics in one way or another since 1980.

FBI Director Robert Mueller: Holdover from the Bush administration.

CIA Director Leon Panetta: Worked in the Clinton administration in various capacities from 1993-1997.

Special Advisor for the Gulf and Southwest Asia under the Secretary of State Dennis Ross: An affiliate of the neoconservative Project for a New American Century, this war-monger served in the Reagan, George H. W. Bush and Clinton administrations.

Chairwoman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Mary Shapiro: Was appointed to the SEC by Reagan, and reappointed by George H.W. Bush.

Assistant to the President for Economic Policy and Director of National Economic Council Larry Summers: Summers, a Clinton administration relic, once said that African countries are under-polluted.

1st Chair of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board Paul Volcker: Volcker was the head of the Federal Reserve under Carter and Reagan.

National Security Advisor James L. Jones Jr.: Retired Marine Corps General James Jones isn't a Clinton retread or a Bush holdover, but he does deserve special mention here. Jones is a war-hawk who is about as subtle as a sledge-hammer.  The Nation Magazine profiled Jones shortly after he was chosen as Obama's National Security Advisor. Not surprisingly, Jones favors a troops surge in Afghanistan and a larger budget for the DoD. Also not surprising—to me, anyway—Jones is friends with 2008 Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain and was said to have really 'hit it off' with Hillary Clinton.

To be fair, most of Obama's Cabinet and important non-cabinet personnel are new to Washington. However, many of the most important jobs are manned by 'Old Guard' Beltway insiders. This would be forgivable, and probably forgettable, had Obama not talked of change so much during the campaign. But nearly every word out of Obama's mouth had to do with ‘change’, and most of the votes cast during the primaries indicated that the Democrat party didn't want to go back to the days of Clinton cronyism.

What bothers me about the Obama Cabinet isn’t that many of them are retreads from previous administrations, or holdovers from the Bush Administration. What bothers the liberal in me—what little left of it there is—is that these people are being sold as Democrats from the left-of-center wing of the party, when in fact, by and large, they are hawkish authoritarians. The members of Obama's Cabinet who were previously in the US House or Senate have voting records that would give any good progressive-liberal or civil libertarian the heebie-jeebies. The ACLU and Public Citizen have Congressional scorecards on their websites documenting how far to the neo-con right these people are¹.

Click here to read part two of this series - Barack Obama: The Mendacity of Hope, Pt II (foreign policy).

Steven McDuffie can be contacted by email at sdmcduffie {at} hotmail {dot} com.

Notes:
1. Obviously, as a Constitutional originalist/strict constructionist, I cannot endorse many of the positions of the ACLU or Public Citizen. I only mentioned them here as a reference source for curious Obama supporters

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©2009 Steven McDuffie, all rights reserved. You must have written permission from the author in order to republish this work.
Published: Monday, April 27, 2009
Last modified: Monday, May 4, 2009

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