Obama's Team Rankles the Right

[cal04]

To Some Conservatives, Advisers Are Alarmingly Liberal
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/01/AR2009010101832.html?wprss=rss_politics%2Ffedpage

To some staunch conservatives watching President Bush relinquish the reins of power to President-elect Barack Obama, a few too many ardent liberals are now crashing the gates.

Some well-known Democratic activists are advising Obama on how to steer federal agencies, including a few whom conservative Republicans fought hard to keep out of power in the Clinton administration. They include Roberta Achtenberg, a gay activist whose confirmation as an assistant housing secretary was famously held up by then-Sen. Jesse Helms (N.C.), and Bill Lann Lee, who was hotly opposed by foes of affirmative action and temporarily blocked from the government's top civil rights job.

Conservatives fear that some of these Obama transition advisers are too far left on the political spectrum and are a sign of radical policies to come.

(snip)
"The incoming Bush people were all about stopping regulation. The Obama people will do their best to accelerate regulation that they think protects the environment, workers, airline safety, et cetera," said Paul Light, a New York University professor of government who has served as a consultant on the transition to The Washington Post. "That's not barbarians at the gate. It's a difference of philosophy."

(snip)
Lani Guinier, a Harvard law professor who was blocked for the same job before Lee's nomination, said she thinks the complaints of an ultra-left takeover by Obama advisers and nominees are manufactured hyperbole.

[Webster Green]

1. "crashing the gates"?

Heh!

Repukes lost! Get over it, mutherfuckers! :nopity:

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

3. "...a few too many ardent liberals are now crashing the gates."

"Ardent liberals?"

wtf is that? Never seen one.

[graywarrior]

2. Fucking crybabies

[GoddessOfGuinness]

4. Considering the nazi leanings of the neocon crowd

I'm sure the entire team appears alarmingly liberal.

This, to me, is great news. Still, I suspect they aren't going to be quite as liberal as I'd personally prefer. I understand why, even though I probably won't agree with everything the Obama team does. The fact that he's not a freaking criminal will be a huge improvement on its own.

[AtomicKitten]

5. Obama put McCain down by 8:00 PST. It wasn't even close.

IMO the Republicans should sit down and STFU.

[firedupdem]

6. They are going to look for anything to complain about.

They had 8yrs of completely fucking over this country. Now we'll need 8yrs to clean it all up. They need to get over it.

[polichick]

7. Good, I feel better now. :)

[opihimoimoi]

8. If we Learned anything from the past 8 friggen years:: NEVER TRUST THOSE PUBS and whot they SAY

THEY LIE CHEAT STEAL....Fuck um all....the only Good GOP is a squished slug....

[depakid]

9. As if anyone needed further proof that "conservatives" are DELUSIONAL

and I mean that in a literal sense.

[carpe diem]

10. that is rich...

a DEMOCRAT won the election and a lot of DEMOCRATS won in the house and senate. In case they forgot their mantra 8 years ago, repeat after me: ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES MOTHERF**KERS!!!

[WyoHiker]

11. With near frost-bite, even a room temperature towel feels scalding.

And now we are in the position of needing to restore essential regulatory oversight when the economy is in recession. Terrific.

I seriously doubt we have the political resolve to do it. We will sacrifice safety, the environment, and a couple other luxuries for a slight flattening of the unemployment spiral.

Damn Bush and Clinton, both. Damn the idiot electorate for putting them into office. And Damn us for not effectively presenting our case back when it might have been possible to do so.


I'm pretty sure that we're a self-destructive species. Better luck in the next evolutionary cycle!!

[quickesst]

13. Jeebus....

"Damn Bush and Clinton, both. Damn the idiot electorate for putting them into office."

So I guess that means you believe Clinton started this, and Bush 1, and Reagan were ok. Idiot electorate? Ha ha.
quickesst

[mucifer]

12. They are going to have SERIOUS problems fighting Obama's stimulus package.

It's not going to be for the banks it's going to education and infrastructure.

I'm curious to see how they will try to fight this.

[firedupdem]

14. That asshole Cantor is already balking at it. He's trying to spin it

and make it a negative. I can't remember what he said because I always start spouting profanities when that jerk hits my tv screen. I can't stand that little shit.

[Thrill]

18. It already sounds like Obama is on top of this too. He's hitting the road

to sell it. Anyone opposing it, is going to be eaten alive by their voters

[WinkyDink]

15. And someone cares about what the loser RW'ers think?

[Democrats_win]

16. This is great! Sock it to 'em!

[Thrill]

17. Obama is one smart ass politician. Put the Centrist/Pragmistist in the Secretary Positions BUT

have the Strong Liberals in the background setting the agenda. He can govern as a Progressive in Pragmatist clothing.

Its clear, people say he is shrewd. I think they have just seen the beginning of how this guy can play the game.

[mikehiggins]

19. My theory is

if you want to know what Obama is up to you have to go back to Chicago.

Remember when the GOPukes tried to hang "socialist" around his neck, and sort of mumbled Saul Alinsky's name in the process? Most of the right have no idea who he was or what he did or what he stood for. Any "community organizer" out of Chicago would know exactly.

If Obama is incorporating Alinsky's tactics into his plans then the Reich(excuse me, the Right) won't know what hit them.

Hot dogs and beans, anyone?

[Mz Pip]

20. Well, duh.

I hardly expected conservatives to be throwing Inauguration parties.

Obama won. Wish him well. too much is at stake for him to fail.

[ShadowLiberal]

21. I think this line in the article shows just how baseless some of their objections are

From the article.

'When President Bill Clinton nominated Achtenberg for assistant secretary at the Department of Housing and Urban Development in 1993, she was the first openly gay political figure to win confirmation. But before she could get the job policing housing discrimination, Helms, a famed conservative, temporarily blocked her hearings. He said that he did so because she was a "damn lesbian" and also a "militant-activist-mean lesbian."'

That reason for opposing someone having any role in government is no different then racism.

[BrklynLiberal]

22. The worst person that Obama could choose would be better than the best person prez shit-for-brains

chose.
No one in the Obama administration is going to try to undermine the Constitution and/or ruin the economy of the US, as did virtually everyone that shithead put into a position.

[RFKHumphreyObama]

23. Because we know that Bush appointed such bipartisan types

like Ted Olsen, John Ashcroft, the Deputy Director of Monsanto and goodness knows who else:sarcasm:

At least the Obama appointments are qualified, not like the ideological zealots that their wonderful Mr. Idiot promoted

[MasonJar]

24. Good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[wildflower]

25. Oh noes...

"The incoming Bush people were all about stopping regulation. The Obama people will do their best to accelerate regulation that they think protects the environment, workers, airline safety, et cetera,"

:scared:

[PurityOfEssence]

26. Anyone who thinks Obama's going much to the left should have his/her head removed

as a public health hazard.

Yes, there's going to be regulation, but this is NOT a leftist group. To their credit, they didn't really say they were, even if they did whistle a merry tune and not clue in ardent leftists who thought they were.

Perhaps a little right-of-center-centrism WILL seem radical to the feudal reactionary ideologues who've been running this country all my adult life; the country slammed the door shut and spiraled back to the dark ages with the 1980 election, and the brief respite of Clintonian moderate appeasement hardly even slowed down the slide.

[retread]

27. The (mis)treatment of Lani Guinier still pisses me off . n/t

[rasputin1952]

28. Since we've all seen what "neo/compassionate" conservatism has done

to not just the country, but the world, I have no problem at all w/"ardent Liberals" taking the helm. No matter how one slices/dices this, it has got to be better than the current administrations "policies".

On a personal note, I don't care what conservatives, the R's or anyone else on the RW side has to say, they lost...massively...there's a reason for that...:)

[Liberal_Stalwart71]

29. I hate how Clinton threw Lani and Jocelyn Elders under the bus, caving in to the Right.

I fear that Obama will be no different. x(

[Jennicut]

30. This is hysterically funny. Lots on DU think Obama is not left enough.

Goes to show you that no Dem will ever be acceptable to the Rethugs. And crashing the gates? Um, he WON the election. Its Obama's right to change anything he wants in the current government of the United States. What a bunch of loser whiny crybabies! I personally think Obama has an excellent team coming in to place that may have one thing that Bush's cronies never had: competence.

[sampsonblk]

31. Good! This is how it SHOULD be

No more of this caving in shit. We won fair and square, unlike Junior. So this is how it should be done. Good for Obama.

[ellie]

32. Elections have consequences

Stupid fuckheads.

[bluedawg12]

33. No matter what is done, the repigs must oppose it, to carve themselves

out as a distinct party and to have a hope in the next mid-term election.

This is how politics works- they call themselves "the loyal opposition."

Pain in the @ss obstructionists is more like it.

[OwnedByFerrets]

34. This is why I dont agree with the "appeasement" of the repug party

by appointing center right persons. "They" are going to BITCH loudly no matter what he does, so go ahead and fill all the spots with progressives.

[Forkboy]

35. If they're upset that's the first promising news I've heard.

Fucking smegheads. :)