This is a pretty funny cartoon by the people at Current. It parodies they AIG scandal and Obama’s cabinet.

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Obama’s political e-mail list tops 13 million names, a digital force that the incoming White House can tap to push for his legislation, tamp down critics or bolster popular support. It’s also a way for Obama to reach into every state, every city, and every neighborhood.

A study released Tuesday found that a quarter of Obama voters said they would continue to work online to support the new administration. The nonpartisan Pew Internet and American Life Project also found 62 percent of Obama’s voters say they would ask others to support Obama’s policies.

Welcome to the Democrats’ new permanent campaign, one planned online and executed on Main Street.

If it works the way Obama’s top lieutenants plan, the White House would marshal hundreds of thousands of phone calls within hours if it looked as if the president-elect were losing a policy battle. With the click of a keyboard, Obama’s aides could ask supporters to flood the phone lines of Congress, making it untenable to ignore the clamor.

That, at least, is the idea.

Obama’s unmatched database gives his incoming administration a clear advantage over its Republican rivals, who have seen decades of datamining overcome in the matter of months. GOP leaders, though, insist they are not deterred.

“I’m impressed with what Obama did, but did they do anything innovative? No,” said Cyrus Krohn, the Republican National Committee’s online director. “They did things creatively.”

During past election cycles, campaign Web sites were little more than digital versions of their campaign pamphlets. But during the last few elections, campaign strategists have turned to the Internet as a way to reach more voters — typically, the uninvolved or youth — and their donations. Now, Obama’s team is turning that strategy into governance.

Howard Dean‘s primary campaign in 2004 brought together massive first-time online support and donors, but that did not translate to real-world votes. Similarly, John Edwards tried to mobilize his supporters in the name of national service ahead of his second presidential campaign; those single-issue voters were not there, however, when Activist Edwards became Candidate Edwards.

Obama, though, has been the most successful so far. Obama’s online supporters raised some $500 million for him, created 2 million online profiles at MyBarackObama.com and used his database to make phone calls during the campaign’s final days.

According to the Pew Research Center for People and the Press, 59 percent of all voters took part in the campaign online, whether it was sending e-mail, reading political blogs or researching candidates. Obama clearly had the advantage.

The Pew survey asked 2,254 adults about their Internet usage and politics from Nov. 20 to Dec. 4. The margin of error in the overall sample is plus or minus 2 percentage points. Among the 1,591 Internet users, the margin of error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.

It’s been a careful dance between Obama and his supporters. His aides have avoided bulk e-mail and have tailored each message to its intended audience. For instance, Latinos and Hispanics who supported Obama received an e-mail announcing Linda Sanchez would be a co-chairman of Obama’s inauguration committee.

It’s the only way to break through bulk e-mails that flood voters’ inboxes, consultants say.

“I think we’ve seen them think critically about every single e-mail that they send,” said Tracy Russo, a Democratic consultant who worked with Dean’s and Edwards’ online campaigns.

For decades, politicians have sought ways to harness public sentiment to outflank troublesome opponents, news organizations and rival interest groups. Obama’s vast network can be a powerful weapon if he can control it, or a dangerous and unpredictable force if he cannot.

Liberal groups in recent weeks have joined the plan. MoveOn in recent weeks sent an e-mail to some of its 4.2 million supporters asking them to get involved, for example.

If Obama and his allies play this right, they could send phone lines crashing within minutes of a declared protest. Similarly, the instant communication of the Internet and cellular phone text messages could end it just by typing one word: “Stop.”

That power gives Obama’s online advisers a potentially bigger role than many of his Cabinet picks and major hires in pushing through an agenda. A Cabinet secretary stumping for a new bill has been rendered less powerful than a million e-mails crashing the Capitol; a visit to the Hill from top aides is unmatched to online petitions that clog legislative offices.

Since the election, 27 percent of wired Obama voters have visited Obama’s Web site to discuss the transition, according to Pew. Even 10 percent of those who supported Republican nominee John McCain have visited the transition Web site, change.gov.

The RNC, however, is not ceding the Internet.

Engineers and political hands have collaborated to identify 40 million GOP voters online, using commercial databases and their internal voter files.

“It doesn’t take a lot to inspire movement and community online,” said Krohn, the RNC’s top Internet operative. “The notion that we can’t catch up, I don’t buy that premise because change happens so quickly on the Internet.”

When President-elect Barack Obama began naming his Cabinet members, we paid much respect to his practical, middle-of-the-road choices. The wisdom of his choices was proven by his ability to look at rivals, old guard veterans, and unpopular figures. After exchanging unpleasant words with Hillary Clinton through the primary, he named her Secretary of State. Arne Duncan, who helped to reform Chicago schools, is accused of being too middling, hardly choosing sides in any debate. But on the other side, Susan E. Rice is viewed as a stubborn up and comer. She will only accept opposing views once she has set her terms. 

The interesting common theme among Barack Obama’s Cabinet members is their love of basketball. Duncan played overseas for a year after college. Susan E. Rice was the point guard of her high school basketball team. Barack Obama has shown his skills in various clips taped on the campaign trail. He and Duncan played one-on-one on Election Night. It begs the question: Does Obama’s basketball savvy help him to make balanced decisions? 

Spot by spot, we’ll analyze his strategy. 

• Susan Rice, Point Guard – The PG has to look at the whole court [the globe], and decide how to stake her claim against resistance. Rice’s unforgiving attitude is perfect for the player who begins with the ball. The United States has taken a strong moral stance in its foreign relations, sometimes for the worst. Rice must measure her tendency to grunt her way through disagreement, and find ways to give the ball up when it matters. She has to see the United Nations as teammates, not opponents.  
• Hillary Clinton, Shooting Guard – Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant play shooting guard because they can score. They make the defense bend to their best efforts. Hillary Clinton can make key decisions, command the attention of her enemy, and then surprise all with the outcome. Not capturing the presidency was a loss, but the battle was won. She scored the Secretary of State seat and remained one of the most powerful people in the world. These tactical wins define her in her career. 
• Barack Obama, Small Forward – Think of the small forward as the hinge on a door. The other players rotate around him as he maneuvers the center and sides of the court. Barack Obama is a small forward with dexterity, a killer jump shot, and the ability to finish difficult baskets in a crowd. He also knows how to move the ball around between his teammates, so that the whole gameplan revolves around unity of theme. He fits on any team because his individual talents make him a standout, but he’s never going to overlook open teammates. Barack Obama is like Grant Hill or Lebron James because he’s versatile, but still aggressive. 
• Arne Duncan, Power Forward – The power forward makes the plays easier for everyone else when he organizes from his position. By grabbing rebounds and defending the basket area, he sets the standard for strong shots versus weak ones. Arne Duncan will have to make responsible choices for the school system to maintain its recovery in the urban centers of the U.S. He will also have to do the dirty work of relieving people who are failing their students to indefinite dismissal. Duncan’s personality is a bit soft for the position, but education is a frontier that will be at the top of the Obama agenda. 
• Robert Gates, Center – Like the point guard, the center has to control the ball movement from the area near the basket. He also has to defend against attacks from the opposing team. Gates was one of the custodians of the Iraq War under President Bush. He demanded more troops when forces were stretched thin, and he advocated for more of the counter-insurgency work to be delegated on the outskirts of Baghdad, where many of the small brigades of rebels had caused carnage. Everything has to begin and end with the center on a good basketball team. If Obama wants to end the war as he said, “cautiously,” he will need to defer to Gates’s judgment, and Secretary Clinton’s recommendations. 

Bench Players: Eric Holder, Attorney General – Holder will have the fun job of restoring the Justice Department to form after the Patriot Act challenged many basic civil rights in order to pursue terrorists. Holder is a natural basketball player, with smooth moves to reach the goal. With the backing of the exec branch, he should have no problem repairing the damage done by crooked judges and an overzealous Dick Cheney and friends. Lisa Jackson is the Environmental Protection Agency chair and comes in with a specific mandate to reduce emissions, which is tricky because detractors claim her record in New Jersey was not one of reform. She’ll be pressed to come to the table with unique solutions for our ozone issues, and energy-saving vehicles.

The proposed team will not mesh all the time, with talent at every position vying for the number one label. Regardless of how egos will mesh, the player-coach we have as a President-elect will look to make the decisive shots in the clutch and overtime.

Democratic Rep. Hilda Solis of California will be Barack Obama’s pick for labor secretary as the president-elect fills the last open positions in his Cabinet, a labor official told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Solis, who is the daughter of Mexican and Nicaraguan immigrants, has been the only member of Congress of Central American descent. She just won a fifth term representing heavily Hispanic portions of eastern Los Angeles County and east LA.

Obama planned to announce Solis’ selection on Friday along with his selection of Republican Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois for transportation secretary. The official spoke on conditions of anonymity because an announcement has not been made yet. A call to Solis’s office was not immediately returned.

Obama is trying to get most of his major appointments out of the way before heading to Hawaii for a holiday vacation, and has held a news conference each day this week to introduce his nominees.

Obama has yet to announce choices for senior intelligence positions or the Office of U.S. Trade Representative.

Solis, in 1994, was the first Latina elected to the California Senate, where she led the battle to increase the state’s minimum wage from $4.25 to $5.75 an hour in 1996.

In Congress, she wrote a measure that authorized $125 million for work force training programs in areas such as energy efficiency retrofitting and “green building” construction.

Andy Stern, president of the 1.9-million member Service Employees International Union, the 51-year-old praised Solis for her deep roots in the union movement. He recalled marching with her in Los Angeles _ well before she was elected to Congress _ to seek higher wages and benefits for janitors.

“We were with her fighting for the rights of people who work from the beginning and we’re so proud that she’s been chosen to be the labor secretary,” Stern said.

Labor unions contributed heavily to Obama and Democrats in the November elections. They hope that having a Democrat in the White House will result in policies that will increase their membership. Their main priority will be passage of legislation that would force businesses to recognize labor unions once more than 50 percent of company’s eligible work force sign union cards.

Labor leaders say employers have used secret-ballot elections, generally held on job sites, to coerce and intimidate workers into rejecting unions. Employers counter that workers are often coerced by their peers to sign union cards and that a secret-ballot election is the only way to determine their true desires.

Labor advocates also are counting on Obama’s pick to lead the Labor Department to help people hit by the economic downturn by promoting the extension of unemployment benefits and boosting infrastructure spending.

CHICAGO — President-elect Barack Obama on Saturday named New York City’s housing commissioner to his Cabinet, turning to a former Clinton administration aide with a national reputation for developing affordable housing.

Obama praised Shaun Donovan’s record in New York, where he managed a $7.5 billion plan with a goal of putting a half-million New Yorkers in affordable housing. The Harvard-educated architect also kept foreclosures to a minimum in the city’s low- and moderate-income home ownership plan, with just five out of 17,000 participating homes.

“We can’t keep throwing money at the problem, hoping for a different result,” Obama said during his radio address released early Saturday. “We need to approach the old challenge of affordable housing with new energy, new ideas, and a new, efficient style of leadership. We need to understand that the old ways of looking at our cities just won’t do.”

While the mortgage crisis has threatened cities, Obama said it also provides a chance to rethink how the Housing and Urban Development Department can help city residents. He said Donovan, who also has a degree in public service from Harvard, will bring “fresh thinking unencumbered by old ideology and outdated ideas.”

Obama’s selection of Donovan marks the 11th post he has filled in his cabinet, in just over a month since his election as the first African-American president. Still to come are announcements of his selections to head the Central Intelligence Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the departments of energy, education, interior, labor, transportation and agriculture.

Donovan’s appointment was something of a surprise. Most speculation has centered around Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin or Bronx borough President Adolfo Carrion Jr.

HUD often has been led by someone who is a minority; Donovan is white. Latino groups were pushing heavily for Diaz, following in the footsteps of Clinton appointee Henry Cisneros of San Antonio, Texas. Bush picked Mel Martinez of Florida, a Hispanic, and Alphonso Jackson of Texas, an African American.

Even the rollout of the selection _ announced at 6 a.m. Saturday via e-mail and later in Obama’s Saturday radio address _ broke with how Obama has announced previous Cabinet positions. For his other appointees, Obama invited reporters to a news conference, along with the nominee, and took questions.

Obama’s last news conference on Thursday, to introduce former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle as his pick for Health and Human Services, was dominated by questions about the corruption scandal swirling around Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is accused of putting Obama’s Senate seat up for sale. Obama has said he’s confident none of his aides were involved in any of the alleged deals.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg named Donovan, a New York native, to head the city’s Housing Preservation and Development Department in 2004. He has been the point person for implementing Bloomberg’s plan to build and preserve 165,000 affordable housing units for 500,000 people by 2013. It is the largest housing plan in the nation.

Donovan took a leave-of-absence as New York’s housing commissioner to campaign for Obama.

Before working for Bloomberg, he worked at Prudential Mortgage Capital Company. And before that, he was deputy assistant secretary for multifamily housing at HUD during the Clinton administration. In that role he was the government’s chief administrator for managing privately owned, government-subsidized housing. The housing subsidy programs provided over $9 billion annually to 1.7 million families. He also oversaw some 30,000 multifamily properties with more than 2 million housing units.

Donovan, 42, has a reputation for finding new ways to create and preserve affordable housing. As New York’s housing commissioner, he spearheaded the creation of the $200 million New York Acquisition Fund, a collaboration between the city, foundations and financial institutions. It is intended to help small developers and nonprofit groups compete for land in the private market.

He was acting commissioner of the Federal Housing Administration during the transition from Clinton to President George W. Bush.

The first sign of cracks in President-elect Barack Obama’s foreign policy team of rivals emerged on Monday as his choices for secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations visited the State Department.

As Secretary of State-pick Hillary Rodham Clinton and U.N. envoy-choice Susan Rice separately visited the diplomatic agency’s headquarters in Washington’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood, persons familiar with the transition said that Rice wants to install her own transition team inside the department.

Such a move by an incoming U.N. ambassador is rare, if not unprecedented, because the job is based at the United Nations in New York, where Rice already has a small transition staff, the sources familiar with the incoming administration.

The push by Rice, an early Obama supporter whose position the President-elect wants to elevate to a cabinet post, is also a signal that she intends to use her influence with the new president to play a more significant role than previous U.N. envoys, they said. The transition sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Officials with Clinton’s transition team declined to comment on the matter, and aides to Rice could not immediately be reached. State Department officials declined to comment on issues related to the transition.

It was not clear if Clinton and Rice _ who had strained relations during the Democratic primaries because of Rice’s steadfast backing of Obama _ saw each other at the State Department as Clinton left the building shortly after Rice arrived.

During the presidential campaign, some Clinton aides saw Rice’s early decision to back Obama as a betrayal because of her previous role as a high State Department official during President Bill Clinton’s administration. Rice’s desire to place her own team in Washington could fuel speculation that those tensions will carry into the new administration.

The officials could not say if Clinton’s team had formally objected to Rice’s plan, or even if Rice would be able to install a separate transition team inside the State Department. But they noted that dueling transition teams could complicate the handover by blurring lines of authority.

Technically, the job of U.N. envoy falls under the authority of the secretary of state, although some previous U.N. ambassadors have held cabinet rank. The last U.N. ambassador to be part of the president’s cabinet was Richard Holbrooke, who had a famously icy relationship with then-Secretary of State Madeleine Albright during the Clinton administration.

Albright, who was President Clinton’s first ambassador to the United Nations, was a mentor to Rice. But the two had a falling out when Albright, America’s first female secretary of state, lined up behind Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination and Rice backed Obama.

Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, was to dine Monday evening with the nation’s current and second female secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, at Rice’s apartment in the exclusive Watergate complex. The two Rices are not related and Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday that she thought Clinton would do a great job.

Also Monday, Clinton was to meet privately with Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. and the incoming chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, according to a Democratic official. Kerry, once a contender for the secretary of state job, will oversee Clinton’s confirmation. Kerry has pledged to hold “swift and fair” confirmation hearings.

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton probably never imagined how their tale would play. As competitors for the highest office in the land (in a historic year no less), they pulled no punches in criticizing each other. As recently as this week, Clinton’s Secretary of State appointment was in serious doubt as the Obama legal team worked quickly to investigate the Clinton Global Initiative and its ties to foreign funding. 

Of course there was that whole primary thing in which Hillary questioned Barack Obama’s patriotism by way of his absent flag pin, and Barack Obama associated Clinton with the Iraq War vote she cast as a junior Senator. All the mud-slinging and unfriendly exchanges notwithstanding, the rivals probably increased their wherewithal and respect for the other during their contest. Even as President Bill Clinton hesitated to confer the ultimate respect on Barack Obama (acknowledging his qualifications), the Obama strategists moved to involve Hillary Clinton in some aspect of his incoming administration. 

The final verdict? Hillary Clinton will hold one of the highest Cabinet positions as Secretary of State, daring to create a new peace accord in the Middle East, and to sanction terrorist states on the international fringe. The State and Justice departments were in severe disarray under President George W. Bush, and the intelligence organizations like the FBI and CIA felt like outsiders in the security discussion. By employing a key negotiator in Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama will do much to mend the fences between those institutions. And more importantly, Senator Clinton has never been a pushover. World leaders will have to take her seriously or face dire consequences.

What Reporters Are Saying

From Politico: 

“One of the things that people often make a mistake in doing is assuming that there’s some sort of personal animosity there, when in fact they were engaged in a very intense competition for the nomination,” said Phil Singer, who was a spokesman for Clinton’s campaign. “They both have a very healthy level of respect for one another.”

From NYTimes:  

 

If Mr. Obama and his team can bring about that kind of shift, it could mark one of the most significant changes in national security strategy in decades and greatly enhance the powers of Mrs. Clinton as secretary of state.

Mrs. Clinton may find, as her predecessor Condoleezza Rice and others in the Bush administration discovered, that building up civilian capacity is easier to advocate than execute.

 

Reasons why Hillary is a great choice from The Daily Beast: 

 

1) Hillary’s Experienced. She may not be the foreign policy wonk like Richard Holbrooke or James Steinberg, but all those years as First Lady—many of them on the road—have given her considerable exposure to foreign leaders. That’s important because Obama himself won’t be able to devote as much attention to foreign policy as everyone assumed six months ago. Until the economy recovers (and who knows when that will be), he’s going to be primarily a domestic policy president. That means he needs foreign policy advisors who can make tough decisions without a lot of Oval Office hand-holding. Hillary fits the bill.

2) She’s No Pushover. Secretary of state is a hard job. In the last half-century, secretaries of state have often been outmaneuvered by national security advisors, who have greater proximity to the boss, and don’t have a big, slow bureaucracy to manage. Now that vice presidents have started to wield real power, life atop Foggy Bottom has gotten harder still. Hillary will have her hands full going up against James Jones, Robert Gates and Joseph Biden, but she’s got a far better chance than, say, John Kerry or Bill Richardson, for two reasons. First, she’s got star power: Other than Obama himself, she’ll be the most famous person in every room she’s in. Second, she has a network of loyalists, inside and outside government, who know how the game is played. She—and they—won’t be easy to roll.

3) She has a domestic base. When it comes to foreign policy, Obama seems determined to do some pretty controversial things: Step up withdrawals from Iraq, launch a diplomatic push with Iran, perhaps shift resources from America’s military to the diplomatic corps. All these things will require a secretary of state who knows how to sell policies in Peoria, and on Capitol Hill. That’s one of Hillary’s big advantages. She thinks like a politician, not a career diplomat, which is crucial since Obama’s Middle East policies will likely require a kind of political campaign at home, so the right can’t successfully paint him as soft on America’s foes.

And the surprise endorsement that no one saw coming. Conservative bigot radio host Rush Limbaugh has called President-elect Obama’s choice of Hillary “a brilliant stroke“:

Says Limbaugh: “You know the old phrase, ‘You keep your friends close and your enemies closer?’ How can she run for president in 2012? She’d have to run against the incumbent and be critical of him _ the one who made her secretary of state.”

Despite the potential friction that remains in this relationship, Barack Obama seems willing to divert their sense of competition into the mechanics of a working relationship. Although this is a risky strategy, it is certainly broad-minded as the U.S. looks to improve its standing in the world and fix a flailing economy. 

As for domestic affairs, newly minted Attorney General selection Eric Holder is said to be the first big change from Bush policy. Holder will place a new focus on civil liberties, and restoring some of the privacy freedoms insured by the Constitution. Vice President-elect Joe Biden will also be an instrumental figure in the peace-keeping both at home and abroad. Biden’s experience as a foreign council committee chair and member of the Senate will put specific pressure on him to maintain order in the now Democratic majority Senate.

Read Susan E. Rice’s Bio Here

Rice is considered a Washington star by many of her peers, and hopes to enact change quickly and drastically as the U.N. relationship with the United States has soured since the Iraq War.

From NYTimes:

he choice of Ms. Rice to represent the United States before the United Nations will make her one of the most visible faces of the Obama administration to the outside world aside from Mrs. Clinton. It will also send to the world organization a prominent and forceful advocate of stronger action, including military force if necessary, to stop mass killings like those in the Darfur region of Sudan in recent years.

To reinforce his intention to work more closely with the United Nations after the tensions of President Bush’s tenure, Mr. Obama plans to restore the ambassador’s post to cabinet rank, as it was under President Bill Clinton, according to Democrats close to the transition.

Obama continued his theme of diversity by choosing two more female leaders for crucial positions, most notably his chief rival for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton. Clinton is well-respected among world leaders, and has a breadth of knowledge of world affairs that will surely make her a force of both diplomacy and defense. In the wake of the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, and the changing world climate concerning Islamic extremism and genocide, the President-elect will be responsible for ending the Iraq War cautiously. Marine General James Jones will serves as his National Security Adviser. 

From Associated Press: 

 

CHICAGO (AP) President-elect Barack Obama announced Monday that Robert Gates would remain as defense secretary, making President Bush’s Pentagon chief his own as he seeks to wind down the U.S. role in Iraq. Obama picked former campaign rival Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state.

At a news conference, Obama also introduced retired Marine Gen. James Jones as White House national security adviser, former Justice Department official Eric Holder as attorney general and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano as secretary of homeland security.

The announcements rounded out the top tier of the team that will advise the incoming chief executive on foreign and national security issues in an era marked by wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and terrorism around the globe.

“The time has come for a new beginning, a new dawn of American leadership to overcome the challenges of the 21st century,” Obama said as his Cabinet picks stood behind him on a flag-draped stage.

“We will strengthen our capacity to defeat our enemies and support our friends. We will renew old alliances and forge new and enduring partnerships.”

Obama said his appointees “share my pragmatism about the use of power, and my sense of purpose about America’s role as a leader in the world.”

He also appointed campaign foreign policy aide Susan Rice as his ambassador to the United Nations. Obama said he would make her a member of the Cabinet, an increase in stature from the Bush era.

Obama’s announcements marked a shift in emphasis, after a spate of appointments last week for his economic team.

He now has selected half the members of his Cabinet, and is doing so at an unusually quick pace during his transition as he seeks to fulfill his goal of being able to “hit the ground running” when he takes the oath of office on Jan. 20.

Obama introduced Clinton first, saying of his former presidential rival, “She possesses an extraordinary intelligence and toughness, and a remarkable work ethic. … She is an American of tremendous stature who will have my complete confidence, who knows many of the world’s leaders, who will command respect in every capital, and who will clearly have the ability to advance our interests around the world.”

Clinton will give up her seat as a senator from New York to join the Obama Cabinet. Her appointment was preceded by lengthy negotiations involving her husband, the former president, whose international business connections posed potential conflicts of interests.

The former president also agreed to disclose the donors to the foundation that built his library, as well as contributors to his international foundation.

She said to Obama, in a brief turn at the lectern, “I am proud to join you … and may God bless you and our great country.”

Sen. Clinton had scarcely finished speaking when her husband issued a written statement. “She is the right person for the job of helping to restore America’s image abroad, end the war in Iraq, advance peace and increase our security, by building a future for our children with more partners and fewer adversaries, one of shared responsibilities and opportunities,” he said.

Gates said he was “mindful that we are engaged in two wars and face other serious challenges at home and around the world.”

“I must do my duty as they do theirs,” he said of the men and women in uniform in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere. “How could I do otherwise?”

He said he was “honored to serve President-elect Obama.”

 

Even before there has been a single Cabinet selection announced, I’m already weary from all the gossip and chatter about potential appointees, but, at least for me, the position of Attorney General is different.  So much of the anti-constitutional abuses and radicalism of the last eight years emanated from the Justice Department, and few things will have more of an impact on what the Obama administration does about them than the views, integrity and independence of the new Attorney General, who looks to be Eric Holder, Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton administration and, very briefly, Acting Attorney General.

The bulk of what I’ve read about and from Holder suggests, with a couple of ultimately marginal exceptions, that this appointment would be a very positive step.

Find out why here.