Ensuring The Handoff

This story tells us that His Fraudulency has put the word out to his staff to help with the transition from Bushco to the incoming Obama Administration…

“This peaceful transfer of power is one of the hallmarks of a true democracy,” Bush told hundreds of Executive Mansion and White House employees who gathered on the South Lawn of the White House on a gray morning less than 48 hours after Obama claimed the presidency.

Said Bush: “Ensuring this transition is as smooth as possible is a priority for the rest of my presidency.”

Commendable, I must say, even if that’s the least he can do (and this Think Progress post tells us that Mike Allen of The Politico – ugh! – is reporting that Robert Gibbs will be the incoming press secretary; how cool is it that Gibbs has already faced off with Sean Inanity of Fox Noise?).

And as I researched the topic of the transition from one administration to another, I came across this post with some neat embedded links, including one to an article detailing presidential transitions going back to that of James Buchanan to Abraham Lincoln in 1861. Also, information appears about the Presidential Transition Act of 2000, signed by Bill Clinton in October of that year, to ease the process for presidential aides and appointees, and also to help alleviate concerns related to information technology.

Also, this lengthy post details some of the difficulties with Dubya’s transition from 2000 to 2001; yes, the contested election held up matters somewhat, but there was also a lot of ideological push-pull between the neocons and more moderate appointees such as Christine Todd Whitman who, for example, wanted the incoming administration to honor the Kyoto Protocols on global warming (and we know what happened there, of course).

Finally, this New York Times article tells us that the claims from Bushco that outgoing Clinton staffers had vandalized keyboards and committed other acts of mischief were true (Clinton himself offered to pay for the damages); the article also tells us that Poppy Bush’s people engaged in similar hijinks in 1992-93, though the GAO report couldn’t determine if the 2000-01 antics were worse than those that occurred during other transitions.

So for all of its myriad failures, the administration of George W. Bush can actually set a positive precedent here and exit in an orderly fashion if it chooses to do so, and it would be up to future administrations to honor that positive example (and for more “fun” with our preznit, click here).