by SusanGThe great undoing has begun:
Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse the president on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.
A team of four dozen advisers, working for months in virtual solitude, set out to identify regulatory and policy changes Obama could implement soon after his inauguration. The team is now consulting with liberal advocacy groups, Capitol Hill staffers and potential agency chiefs to prioritize those they regard as the most onerous or ideologically offensive, said a top transition official who was not permitted to speak on the record about the inner workings of the transition.The article specifically states that Obama administration officials will look most particularly at measures that were imposed for "overtly political" reasons. And all those last minute deregulation binges we’ve been hearing about the last few days? The ones mostly crapping on the environment? Today’s article clarifies:
The list of executive orders targeted by Obama’s team could well get longer in the coming days, as Bush’s appointees are rushing to enact a number of last-minute policies in an effort to extend his legacy.Elections, my friends, have consequences.
In a fundamental way, this nightmare will not be over for a long time. But in the way SusanG describes it, will be over soon. Usually, a new President comes into office with an agenda of things to do. Obama has a short term agenda of things to undo. This is the part that I still can’t get my mind around – that the active destructiveness of the Bush Administration might actually be be undoable or even undone. The last eight years have so ground down my personal sense of the American Agenda that it seems like a fantasy movie. The notion that it can be reversed feels like curing cancer. So, pinch me again…
That brings tears to my eyes.
O.K. so let me be more clear about that. I read the whole Washington Post article.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27628719/
And yes, I did have a few tears again. These are the tears of relief and knowing that we, as a country, have made the right choice this time. That instead of an Administration of secrets and closed door dealings we have a president coming in who not only makes plans that he will see carried out, but that he will do so transparently in cooperation with people on both sides. The fact that he will do so many damaging “executive orders” in a thoughtful way is … amazing and wonderful. This is what it feels like to be proud of your president (elect)! I had forgotten what that feeling was like.
Also, might I mention that I am so ridiculously proud of Colo. Rep. Diana DeGette. Yes she did get my vote! She is such a wonderful force here in Colorado.
Joy to the world!
If you have any money left, send it to Jim Martin in Georgia so that the Democrats might have a 58th senator to help Obama.