Watching how the "transition" is playing out, and mindful that Bill Clinton has been described often as the best republican president, I read this tonight, and it struck me that I've seen this movie too many times before, and unfortunately, I know all too well, how it plays out:
You would think after the Nixon disaster, the unelected joke that was the Ford presidency, the demonization of government, of progressive taxation, and of ballooning the national debt that was the sum of the 12 years of Reagan/Bush, and most recently, the affront to the constitution, the national debt, to the US dollar, to US credibility, and to many of our sensibilities, that is nearly 8 years of Bush Jr., we would not be one big happy "one party" family, anymore:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/...
...Senior business bigwigs Bill Ruckelshaus (Republican) and Gerry Grinstein (Democrat) put on an event featuring White House-bound Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett...
Yeah, I know... Ruckelshaus is an "exception"...but he loved Bork, and served in GHW Bush's administration:
http://query.nytimes.com/...
William D. Ruckelshaus, who was dismissed by President Nixon for refusing to discharge the Watergate special prosecutor, says Judge Robert H. Bork, the man who carried out the task, should be confirmed as a Justice of the Supreme Court. ...
My question.....I'm urging everyone to consider it...is why do ALL contemporary (FDR & Truman loved McCloy and Lovett...) democratic party presidential race winners, and evidently, also the majority of DKos comment posters, shun the left leaning, and support the hand over of "the keys" to their incoming administrations, to the soft to hard right leaning, DESPITE their records of failed performance and philosophy of serving the agenda of the elite, first and foremost?
Some of you think Obama is embarking on a "change" to bipartisanship. It seems it is not "change", it is traditional for newly elected democrats:
Name recognition of this FDR era author is probably lost to most of you:
Thirteen Families - TIME
"Based on 1937 figures, it whittled the Lundberg roster to 13 families, ..."
Researching 1920's income tax filing data, in 1937, Ferdinand Lundberg published during the depths of depression, his findings that 60 US families controlled a disproportionate share of national wealth and lived like royalty...
30 years later, he described newly elected JFK's presidential appointments, this way:
http://books.google.com/...
The Rich & the Super Rich: A Study in the Power of Money Today - Page 173
by Ferdinand Lundberg, Peter Wilsher - Capitalists and financiers - 1968 - 504 pages
Kennedy, even with no war providing an excuse for a coalition, awarded his chief Cabinet posts to Republicans from the camp of big wealth. ...
My earlier diary provides background on a republican and Brown Bros., Prescott Bush partner, Robert Lovett who had "served" as the Air Corps asst. Sect'y of war for FDR, as well as chair of the committee that designed the CIA's structure, under Truman, and also as his Sect'y of Defense during the Korean war years:
The Wise Men By Walter Isaacson, Evan Thomas
http://books.google.com/...
When Sargent Shriver, Kennedy's chief headhunter (and brother-in-law..) called Lovett about the Pentagon job, he again recommended McNamara as "the best of the lot." Lovett's voice counted heavily with Kennedy; he told Shriver to gather the particulars on McNamara. The auto executive passed muster; he had read Profiles in COurage. After McNamara had chosen for Defense, he went to see Lovett in New York, to seek his counsel...Mcnamara listened closely, s Lovett spoke, he took notes....
...Nitze hoped that Kennedy would pick Lovett as Secretary of Degense with Nitze as his number two- with the understanding that Nitze would take over after a year or so.
McNamara's appointment ended that idea. McNamara picked Roswell Gilpatric (Nitze's old classmate at Hotchkiss) as his deputy...
...Jack McCloy got his call in the midst of a dinner party in New York in early December. Kennedy told him that Lovett had suggested him for the Pentagon....Kennedy had another offer....would McCloy take on the task as his special adviser for arms control? McCloy said yes....
http://www.time.com/...
Gilpatric joined the new Kennedy administration in 1961 as part of the wave of Kennedy appointments. His appointment was unusual: he was one of the few Pentagon leaders handpicked by the new President. Fearing that Robert McNamara was inexperienced in Washington's ways, Kennedy chose Gilpatric to add experience to his Defense team....
"Jack" McCloy was a republican, the personal attorney of the Rockefeller, Schiff, and Warburg families, and despite wreaking havoc in key appointments he had received from FDR and Truman, JFK, Johnson, and later, Jimmy Carter, seemed only too happy to do as he directed them to do!
http://www.geocities.com/...
The hairdresser's son, John J. McCloy
Ultimate Insider, Ultimate Outsider - New York Times
Link
...President Kennedy's disarmament adviser, McCloy negotiated the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba; he was one of the "Wise Men" recruited by McGeorge Bundy in 1965 to advise President Johnson on Vietnam policy (but really to secure Eastern Establishment backing for the war). Johnson, who felt awkward around patrician types, was told by Mr. Bundy (no stranger to the patriciate himself) that "the key to these people is McCloy," who "belongs to the class of people who take their orders from Presidents and nobody else." When McCloy and his friends in the Council on Foreign Relations refused to side publicly with the President on Vietnam, Johnson bitterly complained, "The Establishment bastards have bailed out."
Throughout the late 1960's and the 70's, McCloy continued to exert an enormous influence on American foreign policy. In 1979, when David Rockefeller and Henry Kissinger began pressing the Carter Administration to admit the deposed Shah of Iran to the United States for medical treatment (actually, for asylum), they asked McCloy to orchestrate the extensive lobbying effort..
The Eagle and the Lion: The Tragedy of American-Iranian Relations -
The Rockefeller-Kissinger-McCloy pressure in favor of the shah soon became troublesome to President Carter and Secretary of State Vance...
...oh..remember Roswell Gilpatric,Lovett's pick to JFK for arms control adviser? He was the one who Time reported was picked because he "knew how Washington worked"? Here he is, 12 years later, "feeding" Mark Felt's "deep throat" leaker role, to the Nixon thugs:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
The book says the White House learned early on that W. Mark Felt, an F.B.I. official who had wanted the job that Mr. Gray got, was a news leaker. Attorney General Richard G. Kleindienst advised him in 1972 to fire Mr. Felt, Mr. Gray wrote.
"Where’s all this coming from?" Mr. Gray asked.
"From John Mitchell," Mr. Kleindienst replied, referring to the former attorney general who was heading the Nixon’s re-election campaign.
But who was Mr. Mitchell’s source? "It’s Roswell Gilpatric," Mr. Kleindienst said.
I think we left oriented democrats have lost an election, once again, to the right. If you agree, at least consider reacting to what Obama and his transition team seem to have on their plates, similarly to the way you communicated your objections to his turnabout on telecomm amnesty and FISA "reform". His playbook seems to be about avoiding change, not making it....