Still on my political junkie fix, I’ve been watching a lot of what’s going on with the Obama transition and naming of cabinet members. Personally I’m not a big fan of all the names being named. If I really wanted to see another Clinton administration, I would have voted for Hillary (and I only voted for her husband once in 1992). However I said in an earlier blog that Obama is, in fact, a centrist, not a progressive. As a matter of fact, if he is as shrewd as he seems, he’s getting a lot of other veteran left-centrist politicians who can get things done so that he can get things done. So really this shouldn’t be too surprising.
What is surprising is possibly some of the motives behind two of the big stories this week: Clinton as Secretary of State and Joe Lieberman keeping his chairmanship. No one expected either to happen and the intense debate has flared up possible schisms within and among the Democratic Party and/or progressive democrats. Those who are for and against Hillary as SoS and for and against Lieberman as chair of Homeland Security are burning up the blogosphere, radio and airwaves. There are valid reasons on either side of both issues and plenty of room for debate. However everyone seems to refer back to one source: Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals” about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency and his political cabinet, who were mostly made up of political rivals and those of contrary views to Lincoln. Obama has said to be inspired by the book and is re-reading that book again as he picks his cabinet (”Team of Rivals” is now number 12 on Amazon.com best-seller list; both of Obama’s books are in the top ten). However, I think there is a different source of inspiration for these two big news items.
Over the weekend, AMC was running a Godfather marathon on its heavy rotation schedule. It was part way through Godfather II, specifically during the scene where Michael Corleone talks to Pantangeli in his father’s old house. That scene contains the most prescient nugget of wisdom from those movies—aside from “Leave the gun, take the canoli”— which is “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer.” Keith Olbermann touched upon this first on Countdown late last week, and others are now repeating it, but this is what I think Obama is doing.
Senator Clinton still has presidential aspirations and the senate is still her best place to make her play as and consolidate her power base— either helping Obama or challenging him. Some of her worst attacks against him in the primaries had to do with his lack of foreign policy experience. And, of course, then there’s Bill. To quote Stephen Colbert, Bill Clinton still can’t compliment Obama without “looking like he’s passing a stone.” Making her Secretary of State, while putting in her in a position to show off her foreign policy acumen, keeps her in line with Obama’s policies and makes her a follower not a leader. She has to follow his lead, otherwise she threatens American national and international security by trying to speak in her own voice (which could eventually backlash on her if she does run for president again). And Bill has been bending over backwards to help her get the position. Strategically, it’s a smart move. Lieberman wanted (nee demanded) to keep his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee or bolt to the Republicans. This from a Senator who spoke at the RNC, towed the Palin Republican party line during the campaign to bad mouth Obama, then backpedaled like crazy when it looked like McCain was going to lose. Any other time, the Dems would have said bye-bye Leiberman and punished his actions. But when Obama said publicly that he wanted Lieberman to continue to caucus with the Democrats, that one statement saved his ass and his chairmanship. In a country that has taken a huge shift to the left and a state where he faces a potentially tough reelection, the only hope Lieberman has is to help Obama realize his agenda. As much as we want Lieberman to hang by the scrotum, Obama’s move puts him on a leash (we’re not sure how short or long it is until Liberman starts spouting off that neo-con babble again). Again, strategically it’s a smart move.
I admit being more cynical than most, but it seems as much as Obama wants to emulate Lincoln in formulating his cabinet, he also knows enough pop culture to know the Godfather reference and smart enough to have read the line’s original source material (Machiavelli and/or Sun Tzu). He’s smart enough to be successful in politics and it’s possible to pull this off. Granted we’ve just seen what happens to the last group of people who practice those kind of power politics. Also granted, the guy hasn’t even taken office yet. We have yet to see, and we’ll just keep playing Monday morning quarterback until they do.