Interregnum 4: The Clintonian Invasion

The Clinton Soap Opera meets No Drama Obama. Not all of Obama's Cabinet positions and White House staff have been announced, but there are a lot of Clintonites in Obama's upcoming administration. The biggest and most conspicuous Clintonite is HRC, Hillary Rodham Clinton, the wife of the Big Dog himself, former President Bill Clinton. Clinton basher and New York Times Columnist Maureen Dowd has so much more material all of the sudden.
Tim Geithner worked as Under Secretary of the Treasury for Internal Affairs during Bill's presidency and is now Obama's nominee for Secretary of the Treasury. Larry Summers, a Secretary of the Treasury during Bill's administration, is now the designated director of the National Econmic Council. Bill Richardson is the designated Secretary of Commerce and he's served in the Clinton White House as U.N. Ambassador and Secretary of Energy. Susan Rice, Obama's designated U.N. Ambassador, served on former President Clinton's National Security Council and filled the position of Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs during the Clinton years. Eric Holder, a former Deputy Attorney General for Janet Reno, is another former Clinton staffer, and was actually involved with Bill's controversial Presidential pardons just when the Clintons left the White House.
Even Obama's Chief of Staff, Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel, was a senior advisor to the Clintons in the '90s. There are a lot of people who are apprehensive about the number of former Clinton staffers and advisors are in Obama's White House, but he had to get people on his team who are experienced, and former Clinton staffers definitely are. What people keep forgetting is that there was a twelve-year gap in between Democratic Presidencies – from Jimmy Carter at the start of 1981 to Bill at the start of 1993; so, it makes sense that Obama fills the Executive Branch with former Clinton staffers. It's better than having a large contingency of former Reagan, Bush 41, or (shrug) Bush 43. Let's hope that Bob Gates as the continuing Defense Secretary and Jim Jones as the designated National Security Advisor is all the Dubya that Obama can stomach.

Interregnum 2: Geithner As New Finance Wiz

Tim Geithner seems to be a wise choice as a nominee to succeed Henry Paulson as Secretary of the Treasury. He was Under Secretary of the Treasury for Internal Affairs in Bil Clinton's administration and a, I guess, flack of Robert Rubin and Lawrence Summers, who both served as Secretaries of the Treasury at different points in the Clinton years. Geithner is considered to be a protege of Robert Rubin and is currently the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York is the largest known treasury in the world because it holds 25% of the gold bullion in the world. You may remember the Federal Bank of New York as the place that Jeremy Irons robbed in the third Die Hard, so it's a pretty big deal. It's one of twelve Federal Reserve Banks in this country, and Geithner is known as a prudent overseer and manager. I recently read in the New York Times that Iraqi oil profits are held in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
President-elect Obama announced him as his Treasury Secretary nominee and he is sure to be confirmed by the next Congress. He has a good reputation, he has experience in managing a big organization, and he's been in the Treasury Department before. He's as experienced as they get. He has been criticized for letting Leyman Brothers fail but he has a great reputation overall. It's funny that President-elect Obama chose him as the Treasury Secretary nominee instead of his former Clinton era mentor Larry Summers, the disgraced former President of Harvard who has said controversial statements about the math and science skills of women. I wonder if Summers will stick his nose in whatever Geithner's doing.
Tim Geithner is 47 years old, the same age as Obama, and I think he's a sensible pick as Treasury Secretary.