A-B-C. A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing ...

Well, perhaps this was Thud Gregg's big master plan to shut down the Commerce Department.

Gregg Withdraws His Commerce Nomination

However, it has become apparent during this process that this will not work for me as I have found that on issues such as the stimulus package and the Census there are irresolvable conflicts for me. Prior to accepting this post, we had discussed these and other potential differences, but unfortunately we did not adequately focus on these concerns. We are functioning from a different set of views on many critical items of policy.

Obviously the President requires a team that is fully supportive of all his initiatives.

WTF?

He only had about two-years to form some kind of idea the type of policies and programs that would be in an Obama Administration.

Not to mention he is a broom-up-the-ass "fiscally conservative" Republican (and from that "Live Free or Die" oasis of New Hampshire).

What happened - did he park in 30-years experience and all those principles he carries around somewhere and couldn't remember where, while he courted a cabinet post?

Did he think that, with Obama's quest for bipartisanship, he was just going to let Thud Gregg run wild in Commerce, continue the Bush Grindhouse program?

What a fuckin' bozo!

In the meantime, filling the Commerce seat is becoming, more-and-more, harder than getting a prom date for the president of the Science Club.

So there, Obama Team, ABC.

A-Always, B-Be, C-Closing. Always be closing, always be closing ...


Glengarry Glen Ross speech




Bonus "My Sister/My Daughter" Thud Gregg Riffs

John Aravosis (DC): Now Obama only has two Republican cabinet members serving in a Democratic administration - pretty tragic blow to bipartisanship

DougJ: How many Washington wise men does it take to screw an administration?

Prairie Weather: Another war of choice -- in spite of deep recession

Digby: Who's Your Daddy?

Thomas Edsall: Judd Gregg's Refusal To Vote On Stimulus Provokes Firestorm At Home And In Washington

Top Ten Cloves: Ways To Tell Your Neighbor Is Being Vetted For An Obama Cabinet Post

News Item: Barack Obama and the Culture of Leaks

10. They asked you to TIVO the Obama's visit to the White House, and now come over every day to watch, gushing over it

9. Family is listening to audio book "Dreams of My Father", with the volume cranked all the way

8. Your weekly bridge game gets constantly interrupted by Secret Service agents, asking probing questions

7. Clinton friends and supporters have begun threatening you

6. You used to live next door to Michael Vick

5. Rahm Emanuel has already kidnapped their children, as leverage, to prevent them leaking to the media

4. Rather suddenly, family walking around, wearing Chicago Bears jerseys - And you don't live anywhere near Chicago

3. You hear banging, a commotion, and you're neighbor crying, sobbing "But I've never been a lobbyist ... I don't even know any lobbyists"

2. You've seen the book, ''Team of Rivals' on their coffee table

1. Their kids are running all over the place, swearing like Joe Scarborough

Commander Guy Pisses On Interior Department, Marking His Territory

Like a mangy, horny feline, in heat, the Bush Grindhouse is going around, pissing all over the government offices, marking off its' territory, and looking to stink up the joint for the Obama Administration.

Administration Moves to Protect Key Appointees; Political Positions Shifted To Career Civil Service Jobs

Just weeks before leaving office, the Interior Department's top lawyer has shifted half a dozen key deputies -- including two former political appointees who have been involved in controversial environmental decisions -- into senior civil service posts.

The transfer of political appointees into permanent federal positions, called "burrowing" by career officials, creates security for those employees, and at least initially will deprive the incoming Obama administration of the chance to install its preferred appointees in some key jobs

And, of course, Dana Perino, the poster girl for 'glass half full/half empty' optimism, gleefully beamed out yesterday;

PERINO: But there are people in the federal government who — and you should want people who have worked in the administration who think that they might want to make their careers in government. We have a lot of smart people all across the government with a lot of expertise — in the financial sector, in the energy sector, in the environmental sector, the Labor Department, etc.

Really?

Considering where the country is presently, where have they been hiding these "smart people" with "a lot of expertise"?

Now, we're talking Civil Service here, which makes it nearly impossible to dump the deadwood, no matter how much they fuck up, or how incompetent they may be.

And, where this is concentrated on the Interior Department, which oversees the places Bush Cronies want to drill and scrape the earth, it certainly looks like The Commander Guy is tossing them a one last "Mission Accomplished", and said Cronies will likely erect their derricks and move in their earth scrappers before Obama takes the oath of office.

Perhaps a few options to thwart the worst President in U.S. history are in order.

1. Transfer these dwarfs, finks, phonies and frauds to some remote outposts. Let them wither their careers away in some government office on the border of North Dakota and Canada.

Or, better yet, ship up to work with The Wasilla Whiz Kid, and the land of the Midnight Sun.

2. With majorities in Congress, the Obama Administration can rewrite the Civil Service jobs, just enough to exterminate the last droppings of the Bush Grindhouse, send them packing, and then revert back to the original rules.

The 43rd President has done yeoman's work in bringing down this country and he shouldn't get away with leaving his pinhead appointments in place, to muck up the work of undoing the mess he has left us.

As Nicholas von Hoffman once said, during the height of Watergate, on 60-Minutes' "Point-Counterpoint", "There's a dead mouse on America's kitchen floor and it was time for Congress to come in and sweep it up".

Get the brooms ready, there's gonna be a whole lot of sweepin' to be done.


Bonus Bogus Bush Moves

McJoan: Another FU from BushCo

Matthew Yglesias: Burrowing

Nightshift66: Aren't these cretins gone YET??

Laura McGann: Why Bother Making Political Appointees Bureaucrats?

Dday: More Laying Of Landmines

DownWithTyranny: More Bad Faith From The Worst President In History

Al Giordano - "Mr. President-Elect: Judge Abner Mikva Is Right About Sen. Clinton as Secretary of State"

Well, to steal from Michael Corleone, "Just when I thought she was out... they pull her back in ..."

It's the Hillary Clinton Show (co-starring husband, ex-Prez, Bill) again, as we are now in about Day Six of Hillary-as-Secretary-of-State, Def Con 5-mode.

If this is abstruse, or perplexing, and you find yourself shaking your head, saying "WTF", just fire up that TIVO in your mind, go back a few months, and cue up the Hillary Clinton Show when it was Hillary-as-Vice-President, Def Con 5-mode.

Ahhh, but there are voices cutting through the din.

There were two people that had the presidential election nailed to the wall.

One, was Nate Silver, over on FiveThirtyEight.com.

The other was Al Giordano, over on The Field.

Nearly a year before the election, Giordano laid it all out, the Obama ground troops and field game, the wave the was building (and, obviously ignored or underestimated by the Clintonistas, and later, the Dead Campaign Express).

Today, Giordano offers another flare up, hoping to get the attention of President-Elect Barack Obama;

Mr. President-Elect: Judge Abner Mikva Is Right About Sen. Clinton as Secretary of State

Here's a few snips, but go read the post, it's a good one.

Like so many of those here, below, at the grassroots base that refuse to believe the noise machine that seeks to demoralize us and make a lie of your own statement, if - and we say "if" because we have never believed the noise machine's spin, and that is why you are president-elect today - but if you are at all persuaded by the pressures upon you turn your foreign policy over to a media freak show, we invoke the immortal words of Oliver Cromwell to the Church of Scotland in 1650 when it sought alliance with the Crown: "I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken."

Few are the voices - like the brave and wise Abner Mikva - with the wisdom and courage to stand up to the sycophants being rolled at present by the Mighty Wurlitzer!

And this;

There are better uses and positions for someone of the undeniable talent of Senator Clinton in your cabinet, or even on the Supreme Court, but the discretion and diplomacy required of the next Secretary of State to undo the grave messes already created cannot, should not, must not be placed in the hands of someone who - even if it is through little or no fault of her own - is a magnet for the kind of media circus that the mere suggestion of her appointment has drawn already.

Do not wake up on January 21 - or soon after - with the words of the great Abner Mikva ringing in your ears, lamenting that you did not heed them when you could:

"It's more than a legal problem - there are ethical problems and appearance problems."

Put me in the camp that believes it will be disastrous to have Hillary running the State Department (Geez, just look at the way she ran her campaign, Amtrak doesn't have train wrecks as bad as that).

The Hillarylanders have already warmed up their throats, to start singing Hillary as TMFOITW, accompanied by the Grand Central Station Locker Creatures ("Hillary is back! The keeper of the light! All hail Hillary! All hail Hillary! Oh Hillary can you see by the dawn's early light...").

And, let's not forgot a most keen observation from James Wolcott, back in the primaries;

For them, Hillary’s time had come, she had paid her dues, she had been thoroughly vetted, she had survived hairdos that would have sunk lesser mortals, and she didn’t let a little thing like being loathed by nearly half of the country bum her out and clog her transmission. Not since Nixon had there been such a show of grinding perseverance in the teeth of adversity, and Nixon in a pantsuit was never going to be an easy sell contrasted with the powerful embroidery of Obama’s eloquence—his very emergence on the political scene seemed like a feat of levitation. Hillary’s candidacy promised to make things better; Obama’s to make us better: outward improvement versus inward transformation. With Hillary, you would earn your merit badges; with Obama, your wings. Hillary’s candidacy was warmed-over meat loaf—comfort food for those too old or fearful to Dream.

Yes We Can, President-Elect Obama, we can do better for Secretary of State.

Give us the "Change we can believe in".

Choose someone else!

(And, pray, this comes true, if need-be)

Go read Al Giordano's Mr. President-Elect: Judge Abner Mikva Is Right About Sen. Clinton as Secretary of State


Bonus Hillary Riffs

Top Ten Cloves: Things About Hillary Clinton Becoming Secretary of State

Made It Ma, Top of the Campaign! ...

Al Giordano Handing Out Campaign Sheepskins ... To Hillary Supporters

Hillary's New Campaign Slogan: Keep Hopelessness Alive! ... The Results - The Garlic's Weekly Poll

Ari Berman: Hillary Inc.

Top Ten Cloves: Things About The Meeting Today, Between President Elect Obama and John McCain

News Item: McCain: I'll "Obviously" Help Obama With His Administration

10. Surprise for Obama - McCain delivered cookies, baked by Cindy - from her own family recipe!

9. McCain's office sent out Press Release, that the Senator was "suspending" his schedule for the day, to meet with Obama

8. Rules for the meeting? ... McCain limited to only three "My Friends" during conversation

7. McCain conveyed that The Wasilla Whiz Kid was sending Obama some "Good Luck" winks

6. Obama pressed McCain, hard, for how much he'd let the old Dead Campaign Express bus go for ...

5. What's the real scoop? ... McCain whined for over 2-hours, about those 10 Town Hall Meetings, still pressing the issue

4. McCain badgered Obama over a Cabinet post, White House job, anything, for Joe The Plumber

3. Obama said he almost didn't recognize McCain, not having Joe Lieberman with him, to stand off his shoulder

2. Instead of greeting each other with handshake, it was the "terrorist fist jab"

1. McCain admitted he is relieved that he didn't win, and could stay "Divorced from day-to-day challenges people have"


Bonus Obama Riffs

SNL - We Had To Endure Hillary, But Then Came The Obama Files

You Say Lapel Pins ... I Say Lunatics...

Top Ten Cloves: Ways Obama Campaign Can Re-Introduce Michelle Obama

Breaking! Obama VP Call Delayed - Piece of Paper With Name Lost

The "B" List

Top Ten Cloves: Possible Surprising Things Barack Obama Will Do With His Paid Infomercial This Evening