Crash & Burn

Boy do I love transparency.

I guess the problem with being a community activist for too long is that you actually don't get to know many serious, ethical and competent politicians in Washington. And so when you finally get to the bigs, you have to pick stalwarts from the usual suspects. Problem is, transparency's a bitch.

I think it is a bracingly marvelous thing that we have a trail of crumpled bodies under the gleaming wheels of steel of the Obama bus. The big upside of being a saint is that by comparison nobody has high standards. Let us pray that Obama can keep that reputation long enough to get through some more of the dead weight inside the Beltway.

Now Thomas Ricks, the author of the finest critique of the Iraq War, 'Fiasco', is getting a sinking feeling in the pit of his gut about Obama's troubles in getting competent folks into the most key positions of power in the American government.

That sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach is caused by the course of Obama's cabinet picks: Richardson blew up on the launch pad, two of the more prominent picks have tax problems, his CIA pick seems inexplicable, his no. 2 guy at the Pentagon needed a waiver from his new anti-lobbying rule, and Hillary Clinton and her hubbie strike me as a ticking bombs.

It's starting to make me think that the Clinton backlash machine might not have been totally disengaged. What networks is Obama going to have to tap in order to tap the right candidates, and what kind of quids do those pros quo?