Clinton's Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold
Published on
Monday, August 22, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Clinton's Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold
by
Norman Solomon
Hillary Rodham Clinton is introduced by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., center,
and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter before Clinton speaks in the east Denver
suburb of Aurora, Colorado, Oct. 24, 2008. (Photo: David Zalubowski/AP)
Like other Bernie Sanders delegates in Philadelphia a few weeks ago, I kept
hearing about the crucial need to close ranks behind Hillary Clinton.
"Unity" was the watchword. But Clinton has reaffirmed her unity with
corporate America.
Rhetoric aside, Clinton is showing her solidarity with the nemesis of the
Sanders campaign-Wall Street. The trend continued last week with the
announcement that Clinton has tapped former senator and Interior secretary
Ken Salazar to chair her transition team.
After many months of asserting that her support for the "gold standard"
Trans-Pacific Partnership was a thing of the past-and after declaring that
she wants restrictions on fracking so stringent that it could scarcely
continue-Clinton has now selected a vehement advocate for the TPP and for
fracking, to coordinate the process of staffing the top of her
administration.
But wait, there's more-much more than Salazar's record-to tell us where the
planning for the Hillary Clinton presidency is headed.
On the surface, it might seem like mere inside baseball to read about the
transition team's four co-chairs, described by Politico as "veteran Clinton
aides Maggie Williams and Neera Tanden" along with "former National Security
Adviser Tom Donilon and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm." But the
leaders of the transition team-including Clinton campaign chair John
Podesta, who is also president of the Clinton-Kaine Transition Project-will
wield enormous power.
"The transition team is one of the absolute most important things in the
world for a new administration," says William K. Black, who has held key
positions at several major regulatory agencies such as the Federal Home Loan
Bank Board. Along with "deciding what are we actually going to make our
policy priorities," the transition team will handle key questions: "Who will
the top people be? Who are we going to vet, to hold all of the cabinet
positions, and many non-cabinet positions, as well? The whole staffing of
the senior leadership of the White House."
Black's assessment of Salazar, Podesta and the transition team's four
co-chairs is withering. "These aren't just DNC regulars, Democratic National
Committee regulars," he said in an interview with The Real News Network.
"What you're seeing is complete domination by what used to be the Democratic
Leadership Council. So this was a group we talked about in the past. Very,
very, very right-wing on foreign policy, what they called a muscular foreign
policy, which was a euphemism for invading places. And very, very tough on
crime-this was that era of mass incarceration that Bill Clinton pushed, and
it's when Hillary was talking about black 'superpredators,' this myth, this
so dangerous myth."
Black added: "And on the economic side, they were all in favor of austerity.
All in favor of privatization. Tried to do a deal with Newt Gingrich to
privatize Social Security. And of course, were all in favor of things like
NAFTA."
As for Hillary Clinton's widely heralded "move to the left" in recent
months, Black said that it "was purely calculated for political purposes.
And all of the team that's going to hire all the key people and vet the key
people for the most senior positions for at least the first several years of
what increasingly looks likely to be a Clinton administration are going to
be picked by these people, who are the opposite of progressive."
In that light, Salazar is a grotesquely perfect choice to chair the
transition team. After all of Clinton's efforts to present herself as a foe
of the big-money doors that revolve between influence peddlers and
government officials in Washington, her choice of Salazar-a partner at the
lobbying powerhouse WilmerHale since 2013-belies her smooth words. That
choice means the oil and gas industry just hit a political gusher.
On both sides of the revolving doors, the industry has been ably served by
Salazar, whose work included arguing for the Keystone XL pipeline. His
support for fracking has been so ardent that it led him two years ago to
make a notably fanciful claim: "We know that, from everything we've seen,
there's not a single case where hydraulic fracking has created an
environmental problem for anyone."
Salazar is part of a clear pattern. Clinton's selection of Tim Kaine for
vice president underscored why so many progressives distrust her. Kaine was
among just one-quarter of Democrats in the Senate who voted last year to
fast track the TPP. When he was Virginia's governor, Kaine said that "I
strongly support" a so-called right-to-work law that is anathema to
organized labor. A few years ago he faulted fellow Democrats who sought to
increase taxes for millionaires.
Clinton announced the Kaine pick while surely knowing that many progressives
would find it abhorrent. A week beforehand, the Bernie Delegates Network
released the results of a survey of Sanders delegates showing that 88
percent said they would find selection of Kaine "unacceptable." Only 3
percent of the several hundred respondents said it would be "acceptable."
The first big post-election showdown will be over the TPP in the lame-duck
session of Congress. Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon reiterated a week ago
that "she is against the TPP before the election and after the election."
But her choices for running mate and transition team have sent a very
different message. And it's likely that she is laying groundwork to convey
anemic "opposition" that will be understood on Capitol Hill as a
wink-and-nod from a president-elect who wouldn't mind "aye" votes for the
TPP.
Blessed with an unhinged and widely deplored Republican opponent, Hillary
Clinton may be able to defeat him without doing much to mend fences with
alienated Sanders voters. But Clinton's smooth rhetoric should not change
the fact that-on a vast array of issues-basic principles will require
progressives to fight against her actual policy goals, every step of the
way.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
Norman Solomon
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Clinton's Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold
Published on
Monday, August 22, 2016
by
Common Dreams
Clinton's Transition Team: A Corporate Presidency Foretold
by
Norman Solomon
. 51 Comments
.
. Hillary Rodham Clinton is introduced by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo.,
center, and Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter before Clinton speaks in the east
Denver suburb of Aurora, Colorado, Oct. 24, 2008. (Photo: David
Zalubowski/AP)
. Like other Bernie Sanders delegates in Philadelphia a few weeks ago,
I kept hearing about the crucial need to close ranks behind Hillary Clinton.
"Unity" was the watchword. But Clinton has reaffirmed her unity with
corporate America.
. Rhetoric aside, Clinton is showing her solidarity with the nemesis
of the Sanders campaign-Wall Street. The trend continued last week with the
announcement that Clinton has tapped former senator and Interior secretary
Ken Salazar to chair her transition team.
. After many months of asserting that her support for the "gold
standard" Trans-Pacific Partnership was a thing of the past-and after
declaring that she wants restrictions on fracking so stringent that it could
scarcely continue-Clinton has now selected a vehement advocate for the TPP
and for fracking, to coordinate the process of staffing the top of her
administration.
. But wait, there's more-much more than Salazar's record-to tell us
where the planning for the Hillary Clinton presidency is headed.
On the surface, it might seem like mere inside baseball to read about the
transition team's four co-chairs, described by Politico as "veteran Clinton
aides Maggie Williams and Neera Tanden" along with "former National Security
Adviser Tom Donilon and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm." But the
leaders of the transition team-including Clinton campaign chair John
Podesta, who is also president of the Clinton-Kaine Transition Project-will
wield enormous power.
"The transition team is one of the absolute most important things in the
world for a new administration," says William K. Black, who has held key
positions at several major regulatory agencies such as the Federal Home Loan
Bank Board. Along with "deciding what are we actually going to make our
policy priorities," the transition team will handle key questions: "Who will
the top people be? Who are we going to vet, to hold all of the cabinet
positions, and many non-cabinet positions, as well? The whole staffing of
the senior leadership of the White House."
http://commondreams.org/omissionhttp://commondreams.org/omission
Black's assessment of Salazar, Podesta and the transition team's four
co-chairs is withering. "These aren't just DNC regulars, Democratic National
Committee regulars," he said in an interview with The Real News Network.
"What you're seeing is complete domination by what used to be the Democratic
Leadership Council. So this was a group we talked about in the past. Very,
very, very right-wing on foreign policy, what they called a muscular foreign
policy, which was a euphemism for invading places. And very, very tough on
crime-this was that era of mass incarceration that Bill Clinton pushed, and
it's when Hillary was talking about black 'superpredators,' this myth, this
so dangerous myth."
Black added: "And on the economic side, they were all in favor of austerity.
All in favor of privatization. Tried to do a deal with Newt Gingrich to
privatize Social Security. And of course, were all in favor of things like
NAFTA."
As for Hillary Clinton's widely heralded "move to the left" in recent
months, Black said that it "was purely calculated for political purposes.
And all of the team that's going to hire all the key people and vet the key
people for the most senior positions for at least the first several years of
what increasingly looks likely to be a Clinton administration are going to
be picked by these people, who are the opposite of progressive."
In that light, Salazar is a grotesquely perfect choice to chair the
transition team. After all of Clinton's efforts to present herself as a foe
of the big-money doors that revolve between influence peddlers and
government officials in Washington, her choice of Salazar-a partner at the
lobbying powerhouse WilmerHale since 2013-belies her smooth words. That
choice means the oil and gas industry just hit a political gusher.
On both sides of the revolving doors, the industry has been ably served by
Salazar, whose work included arguing for the Keystone XL pipeline. His
support for fracking has been so ardent that it led him two years ago to
make a notably fanciful claim: "We know that, from everything we've seen,
there's not a single case where hydraulic fracking has created an
environmental problem for anyone."
Salazar is part of a clear pattern. Clinton's selection of Tim Kaine for
vice president underscored why so many progressives distrust her. Kaine was
among just one-quarter of Democrats in the Senate who voted last year to
fast track the TPP. When he was Virginia's governor, Kaine said that "I
strongly support" a so-called right-to-work law that is anathema to
organized labor. A few years ago he faulted fellow Democrats who sought to
increase taxes for millionaires.
Clinton announced the Kaine pick while surely knowing that many progressives
would find it abhorrent. A week beforehand, the Bernie Delegates Network
released the results of a survey of Sanders delegates showing that 88
percent said they would find selection of Kaine "unacceptable." Only 3
percent of the several hundred respondents said it would be "acceptable."
The first big post-election showdown will be over the TPP in the lame-duck
session of Congress. Clinton's spokesman Brian Fallon reiterated a week ago
that "she is against the TPP before the election and after the election."
But her choices for running mate and transition team have sent a very
different message. And it's likely that she is laying groundwork to convey
anemic "opposition" that will be understood on Capitol Hill as a
wink-and-nod from a president-elect who wouldn't mind "aye" votes for the
TPP.
Blessed with an unhinged and widely deplored Republican opponent, Hillary
Clinton may be able to defeat him without doing much to mend fences with
alienated Sanders voters. But Clinton's smooth rhetoric should not change
the fact that-on a vast array of issues-basic principles will require
progressives to fight against her actual policy goals, every step of the
way.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0
License
