Team Obama dabbles in drama

By ROGER SIMON | 1/6/09 4:24 AM EST (POLITICO.COM)

For an outfit known for its lack of drama, Team Obama has become a downright thrill show.

Bill Richardson! Rick Warren! Rod Blagojevich! Roland Burris! Talk about a ride through the fun house.

President-elect Barack Obama doesn’t bear responsibility for all these speed bumps on the road to a better, happier, more respected America, but he certainly bears responsibility for some of them.

Obama’s selection of Bill Richardson for secretary of commerce didn’t seem like an awful idea. Richardson certainly has accomplished some things in his life, and he wanted an administration job really, really badly. He wanted to be vice president and didn’t get it. He wanted to be secretary of state and didn’t get it. So he lowered his sights to “Anything in the Cabinet Whatsoever,” and he got it.

Exactly why Obama felt he had to give Richardson something is unclear. Maybe it was an act of compassion. Maybe Richardson had threatened to hold his breath until he turned blue. In any case, he got the nomination.

But Richardson clearly did not get the vetting that is supposed to go along with it.

(more from Politico)

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Vetting process are hard, everybody has skeleton in the closet, but when your new boss has asked for full disclosure if they can't make it to the light of day don't step up to the plate.

You have to assume that Transition Team 44 just thought that since Richardson ran for President all the dirty laundry would have already come out...really can you blame them. Not much of a scandal but looks bad for Dems.

Scandal Meter:
44 - 2 of 10
Dems - 6 of 10

Let's antagonize the G&L crowd

Obama sends message with Warren invitation

Selecting the evangelical pastor to deliver the inaugural invocation upsets gay-rights supporters

BY MARY RAE BRAGG TH STAFF WRITER

The interest and opinions surrounding Barack Obama's choices for his new administration make for great political chatter, but none more interesting than his selection of Pastor Rick Warren to deliver the inaugural invocation.

Warren, founder of the evangelical Saddleback Church, in Lake Forest, Calif., and author of the best-selling nonfiction "The Purpose Driven Life," hosted a televised forum featuring Obama and the Republican nominee John McCain during the presidential campaign.

Known for urging his followers to address social issues such as poverty, disease and global warming, Warren also supports traditional evangelical positions on abortion and gay marriage, most recently calling for passage of California's Proposition 8 that outlaws marriage between homosexuals.

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Smart move, reach out to a large portion of the GOP base to have them think maybe you might be on their side while at the same time letting the GLAD crowd you aren't going to bend over for them each time they start to whine. Make you look inclusive but only by slightly excluding some.

Scandal Meter:

2 of 10 (sorry but pissed off constituents at the expense of sucking up to fundies merits something)