transition

The Obama transition formally announced Jack Lew and Jim Steinberg as deputy secretaries of state just now. On Lew, my pal Mark Kleiman, who knows the guy, remarks, “He’s just one of those people who aren’t even tempted to cut corners, or at least that’s the way he comes across.” Interesting.
But here are two more: [...]

Bill Gertz has kind of a breathless piece in today’s Washington Times about how Defense Secretary Bob Gates is asking many of the Pentagon’s political appointees to remain in their posts. Until such time, that is, as Barack Obama’s Pentagon transition team and defense aides replace them. See why that story is important? Me neither.

As political reporters wait for the release of the Obama-Biden transition’s report on its interactions with the office of disgraced Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, it’s hard not to wonder about the timing.
The release is expected later today at 4:30 p.m. EST. Taking at face value the transition team’s assertion that the U.S. attorney’s office [...]

The Obama-Biden transition team released a statement today reaffirming President-elect Barack Obama’s previous statements that neither he nor any one in the transition had any inappropriate contact with Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s staff regarding Obama’s vacated Senate seat. Blagojevich was arrested by federal authorities last week for allegedly scheming to “sell” the seat.
From the statement:

There I was, moments ago, just minding my own business with CNN droning on in the background, when I heard Wolf Blitzer declare that “you have better odds of being admitted to Harvard than getting one of those plum Obama appointments.”
Gee, Wolf, what an amazing insight. However, I can’t shake the feeling that I’ve heard [...]

During a press conference this morning in Chicago, ostensibly to officially name former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) as President-elect Barack Obama’s pick for secretary of health and human services and director of the White House office of health reform, Obama found himself talking mostly about the scandal surrounding Democratic Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich.
When [...]

The Orlando Sentinel has a really incredible story this morning about intransigence at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
NASA administrator Mike Griffin is not cooperating with President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, is obstructing its efforts to get information and has told its leader that she is “not qualified” to judge his rocket program, the Orlando [...]

The Obama-Biden transition team today unveiled a new feature at the Change.gov Website that will allow visitors to ask their most burning questions of the transition. From the email announcement:

Further evidence that the sometimes frosty relationship that existed between President-elect Barack Obama and the press covering him during the campaign has thawed considerably emerges in a pool report from Obama’s flight home to Chicago today from the National Governors Association meeting in Philadelphia.

President-elect Barack Obama is often cautious to remind reporters that there is only one president at a time — and for the record, it’s still, sigh, President George W. Bush — but as far as the nation’s governors are concerned, Obama is the guy to talk to.
Obama is scheduled to attend a meeting of the [...]