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Washington Prowler
Hot Rodders
SEAT COMPANY
Future White House chief of staff and current Rep. Rahm
Emanuel is not discussing with senior transition-team
members his contacts with Illinois Gov. Rod
Blagojevich dealing with filling President-elect
Barack Obama's U.S. Senate seat.
"We don't expect him to," says one transition team member. "We know the two of them had a much more complex relationship than Obama had with Blagojevich."
In fact, by most accounts, Obama wanted little to nothing to do with Blagojevich, and was actually drawn into in his gubernatorial race by Emanuel, a more avid supporter.
The missing name from the discussion of who did what with whom in the Blagojevich scandal, say some Chicago political insiders, is David Axelrod, the mastermind behind the Obama campaign, and a longtime adviser to Blagojevich, who was involved in a number of his political races, but did not run Blagojevich's run for governor.
"They still talked quite a bit," says one longstanding Chicago Democratic political consultant. "And I'd be surprised if Blagojevich didn't reach out to Axelrod before anyone else to discuss the Senate seat situation."
One point about the scandal that several transition team members agree on is that Valerie Jarrett, a longstanding Obama friend and well-known political hack going back to her days working for the Daley machine, was not in the running for the Senate seat.
"Obama and Jarrett seemed to know early on that it would be difficult for her to be placed in a job that required a high level of transparency," says one transition team member. "As a senior White House aide, she will have to disclose a great deal of financial and personal information, but not to the degree that she would for a Senate seat or a Senate-confirmable position. She didn't want that, and Obama didn't want that." Jarrett is credited with hiring Michelle Obama to a high-paying job and drawing the Obamas more closely into the Chicago political machine.
LEFT RIGHTS
Senior Obama transition team members have signed off on a
recommendation that would have President Obama signing an
executive order to bring back an Interagency Working Group on
Human Rights, similar to an order signed by President Bill
Clinton in 1998. This order, say the transition team members,
would be the prelude to legislation renaming and expanding the
role of the current U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
"It's an idea that an advisory group at the American Constitution Society came up with a few months ago, and it appeals to a lot of us working on the issue," says one transition team member working on the Justice Department transition project. "The basic idea is that we are no longer a nation that respects human rights here at home or abroad, and we need to send a clear message to our friends around the world that we will return to being a nation of laws human rights."
Under the plan, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights would be renamed the U.S. Commission on Civil and Human Rights, with a focus on a range of domestic policy issues, including homosexual marriage and the "rights" of illegal aliens.
"The goal is to create institutions that give all Americans a venue to get greater protection of their civil rights and to expand America's influence on such issues around the world," says a State Department transition team member, who resigned his career position at State a month ago, but intends to return as a political appointee there in the area of international human rights. "The more critical component of the recommendations is the re-creation of the interagency working group."
This group would identify and coordinate any and all human rights treaties that the U.S. might consider entering into, as well as coordinating the negotiations through the State and Justice Departments, among others. Staff on the new U.S. Commission would be given a role those negotiations to ensure domestic human rights issues are addressed.
The recommendations in the area of human rights are the first that give a look inside the Obama administration's plans to use the federal regulatory and advisory bureaucracy to put in place more radical and leftist policies in a more subtle manner than through controversial and attraction-getting major pieces of Congressional legislation.
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Melvin Leppla| 12.15.08 @ 7:08AM
Next thing we will learn that passing gas will become a human right.
This absurdity is going to get to the point that we will not be able to say or do anything without offending someone without calling this offense a, "human right."
Danny Boy| 12.15.08 @ 9:08AM
Melvin is not seeing the broader picture here. Offending people will not be preculded in certain cases, specifically when the offense is directed at groups which have historically been abusive of human rights - for instance - traditional Catholics, evangelicals, and fundamentalists, not to mention white males. We wanted change - boy are we going to get it.
Bob| 12.15.08 @ 9:12AM
Occasionally, there is an article published here at AmSpec which is not only factual, fair, and well done, but puts forth a center right position logically. This is one of them. Congrats!
I do think their human rights agenda will push left -- the real question is how far. McCain had problems with terror interrogation issues as do most of us. I'll be surprised, however, if they go too far to the left with Jones and Gates in the mix. If Jones and Gates are replaced with far left people, then it will change, but I don't think that will happen soon.
Chris| 12.15.08 @ 11:07AM
"...by most accounts, Obama wanted little to nothing to do with Blagojevich, and was actually drawn into in his gubernatorial race by Emanuel, a more avid supporter."
Oh now I see. Other than using the governor's most trusted advisor David Axelrod to win the Presidency and become the most powerful person in the world, Obama wanted nothing to do with Blagojevich. That's it! Old Rahm dragged him into it. One would have to be a total stooge to buy that one. It's amazing to me how every big name politician in Illinois was closely connected to the governor, except the esteemed President-elect. Mr. Clean skates again...
Dustoff| 12.15.08 @ 3:13PM
How odd, Obama & Hot rod work together in 2006 reelection.
So it's not like their not friends.
carolinem| 12.15.08 @ 6:19PM
If the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights will expand to protect illegal aliens, it only will codify established policy of the Bush administration and Republican senators such as John McCain and other Republican elites, who have pushed and prodded for amensty and benefits for illegal aliens for years. I'm sure Republican elites are celebrating right now over Obama's approval and codification of lawbreaking -- something Republicans in power have fought to establish over the last eight years.
Robert Pinkerton| 12.15.08 @ 8:25PM
Solicitude over civil rights (BTW, does this specific locution refer particularly to rights of citizens as counterposed to rights of all within the U.S.?) is not necessarily a bad thing if all Civil Rights get their due, including the right to arms (Second Amendment of the United States Constitution, equivalent provisions in many State constitutions). Laws restricting firearm ownership are harbingers of indecent designs by government upon our other rights.
This is why I am so immensely pleased to see Governor Blagojevich being done down by due process of law -- so he stays put down, and becomes far less likely retrospectively to be made a martyr: He is a gun-hater.
If a would-be armed robber lies dead on the shop-floor of his intended victim, where is the wrong? If a would-be rapist lies dead at the feet of his intended victim, where is the wrong?
DaveS| 12.15.08 @ 10:47PM
Can we not just keep 'rights' limited to those enumerated in the Constitution, as amended, with "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" the signpost? All else is fabricated. I am sorry, but the right of men to exchange fluids in promiscuous settings does not seem a right to me (or to Scalia, et al in the recent Texas sodomy law case.)
frankg| 12.15.08 @ 10:53PM
"The recommendations in the area of human rights are the first that give a look inside the Obama administration's plans to use the federal regulatory and advisory bureaucracy to put in place more radical and leftist policies in a more subtle manner than through controversial and attraction-getting major pieces of Congressional legislation."
"...a more subtle manner...". Says it all. I hope someone will be watching and warning on the movements of this bureaucracy.
JamesJ| 12.16.08 @ 8:26AM
Obama is going to need more buses
tanarg| 12.16.08 @ 10:04AM
Nearly everything will be done out of view, folks.
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