Wednesday, December 10, 2008

transparency test for change.gov

We get to find out soon whether or not the Barack Administration (that feels a little weird writing) will be as transparent as the change.gov site would lead one to believe. After the fiasco with Gov. Rod Blagojevich caught on tape suggesting "Fuck that, this Senate seat (Barack's) is worth a lot of money and all they (Barack's people) are offering is 'thanks', well fuck that."

The soon-to-no-longer-be-Illinois Governor is likely to get his own hosing in the very near future. Blagthebitch has nothing to offer in a plea deal. That's the problem with getting caught red-handed on tape. Prosecutors already have the Governor and his chief of staff, so short of a passel of Chicago crime bosses, the Governor has little to offer a prosecutor. The best Gov. Rod can hope for is that, in exchange for a guilty plea, and saving the government a lot of money in trial fees, he can shave off a few years of his sentence. Prosecutors dream about EXAMPLES like Blagojevich. Funny irony. Blagojevich losing his career so someone else will gets theirs.

And you thought Larry Craig was dumb. Lucky for Craig, Blagthebitch came along so Larry didn't have to spend another night being the punch line on comedy shows. Craig is still trying to explain his "I want to wash your sock" line to the courts but just yesterday, another judge smiled, dismissed his motion to have his guilty plea vacated, and said, enough of this bathroom humor.

But back to Obama. Barack claims to have no knowledge of the Blagojevich mess and why would he? We don't expect he has. However, Obama advisor, David Axelrod, as recently as a couple of weeks ago, claimed that the Governor and Barack had talked. Now folks on the right are calling for correspondence between the transition team and the Governor to be made public.

I say bare the facts Obama. Get everything in the public record. Silence the right wingers and show your administration will be good and decent. And if members of your transition team are dirty, move quickly to publicly fire them. The current administration (the Bushites) would never comply with such a request for documents even though Bush repeatedly said if anyone in my administration has even a hint of impropriety, they would be forced to step down. That never happened.

Now Obama can make good on a promise, one that people believed in, and that was to have a more transparent government. If the Obama camp does not provide these records, it won't mean (regardless of what the right will say) that they have anything to hide, but it will mean that things in Washington don't change that easily.

Did you really believe they did? It's up to the people to make it happen.

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