In the latest round of pre-inaugural musical chairs, Virginia governor Tim Kaine is new head of the DNC, former Clinton chief of staff Leon Panetta is in at CIA…
…and Governor Bill Richardson is out at Commerce. “‘Given the gravity of the economic situation the nation is facing,’ the governor said, ‘I could not in good conscience ask the president-elect to delay for one day the important work that needs to be done.’” [Official Statements.] Um, ok…but how has the situation on the ground changed in the past month or so? It doesn’t seem like this investigation into a possible pay-to-play deal in New Mexico snuck up on anyone, and, at least according to Mother Jones, Richardson may have a history of this potentially sordid behavior. One would think Gov. Richardson could have rejected the offer of Commerce when it was first presented to him, not so very long ago.
At any rate, with Richardson now looking suspect, that means two of our 2008 Dem Final Four — the other, of course, being John Edwards — were harboring potential general-election-killing scandals that they didn’t see fit to tell anyone about. (That number rises to two and a half if you count the recent brouhaha involving developer Robert Congel and the Clinton foundation, but that one sounds iffier to me, in part because Congel donated money well after the potential favors were bestowed.) Really, what’s wrong with these people? Is it too much to ask that these so-called statesmen take their own shadiness into account before playing dice with our future?
Well, one would hope this and Blagojevich’s recent antics will further press on our party the need for comprehensive lobbying, ethics, and campaign finance reform, and soon. These may be state-level scandals, but they’re also indicators of a broken system that’s awash in — and often only responds to — money. And, now that we’ll soon be running both ends of Pennsylvania Ave. again, the last thing we need is to follow the GOP down their low road of avarice and ignominy.
Yeah, I’ve been pretty disappointed in all of these messes coming out. Not only are we ineffectual, but now we’re corrupt as well? I liked to think that we were better than the GOP on this, but it looks more and more like there are very bad systemic problems which they featured more prominently and shamelessly in since they were in power, but which by no means excluded us. And I don’t have a whole lot of faith in Congress or the states to do much to fix them. It’s gonna take concerted grassroots activist attention over time, but there are just too many more urgent problems sucking up all of the energy now. What really worries me is that the corruption stuff will make it a lot easier for the GOP to keep us from governing. It’s already causing problems, with the Burris/Blago thing distracting everyone from the fact that the world is coming down around our ears, and delaying the stimulus along with the petty Congressinal turf wars, which also have a whiff of corruption and pork about them to me.