Sirota on Obama’s “Team of Zombies”
David Sirota has a very interesting post in which he is very critical of Obama’s economic and national security teams. Here’s a taste:
Obama’s national security team, for instance, includes not a single Iraq war opponent. The president has not only retained George W. Bush’s defense secretary, Robert Gates, but also 150 other Bush Pentagon appointees. The only “rivalry” is between those who back increasing the already bloated defense budget by an absurd amount and those who aim to boost it by a ludicrous amount.
Of course, that lockstep uniformity pales in comparison to the White House’s economic team — a squad of corporate lackeys disguised as public servants. . . [R]egardless of election hoopla, Washington is the same one-party town it always has been — controlled not by Democrats or Republicans, but by Kleptocrats (i.e., thieves). Their ties to money make them the undead zombies in the slash-and-burn horror flick that is American politics: No matter how many times their discredited theologies are stabbed, torched and shot down by verifiable failure, their careers cannot be killed. Somehow, these political immortals are allowed to mindlessly lunge forward, never answering to rivals — even if that rival is the president himself.
This is a very intersting analysis. While I agree with the substance of his criticism, particularly of Obama’s economic team and the prominent role of Summers (and other Clinton-era stalwarts), I think the overarching conclusion he draws is a little bit too pessimistic (though perhaps only a bit). Here’s why:
One of the areas that Sirota fails to mention is Obama’s legal team. This also happens to be the field in which, as a lawyer, Obama’s expertise is greatest. So it is the area in which he feels most confident in his own judgment. And it is in his appointments of lawyers that Obama has shown the most independence from the “team of zombies” that runs D.C. Among the top people he has chosen are names like Dawn Johnson, David Barron, Marty Lederman, and Neal Katyal (not to mention a number of lesser known appointments in important posts). Several of these are people I have met in one capacity or another through the small world of the legal academy. While none of them are bomb-toting radicals, by any stretch, they’re also not consummate insiders. Katyal, Johnson and Lederman, for instance, each opposed the Bush torture and detention policies even before it was popular and risk-free to do so.
The strength of Obama’s appointments in the legal arena give me at least some hope that, as he finds his own voice in economic and military policy, and becomes less reliant on his underlings, he may begin to tap into independent voices in those areas as well. But only time will tell whether that hope is in vain.
I certainly hope you are right about the strength of the new Administration’s legal team; change is certainly needed in that area on many issues. But at the risk of being branded as a one-issue poster, I have some reservations about Attorney Johnson, who is no doubt a well-qualified practitioner of law. However, the new head of the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel is also the former legal director for NARAL, and Attorney Johnson’s office, among its several duties, “is responsible for providing legal advice to the Executive Branch on all constitutional questions and reviewing pending legislation for constitutionality.” In addition, “[a]ll executive orders and proclamations proposed to be issued by the President are reviewed by the Office of Legal Counsel for form and legality, as are various other matters that require the President’s formal approval.”
http://www.usdoj.gov/olc/
I hope it’s not just me, but I immediately recoil when I come across charges that the Obama administration is made up of corporate lackeys, kleptocrats, thieves, and undead zombies. I’m hardly an Obama supporter, but to find that the Sirota rant is characterized as an “interesting analysis” is further disturbing. I suspect if this language were coming from the right it wouldn’t be so casually welcomed. From the left it’s apparently “interesting.”
Why not just praise the heroic lawyers you vouch for without bringing in the Sirota “analysis?”
If things are so terrible with the new administration can we anticipate that these lawyers of unquestioned integrity will prosecute the Obama appointed “thieves” just as soon as they get their credentials?
In spite of all the rhetoric about “change”, not much has changed since Eisenhower warned of the power of “military-industrial complex.”
I was surprised not at all by the tenor of the appointments, and as William’s post demonstrates, the legal appointments only serve to show another industry’s special interests will be advanced — those of the huge and powerful abortion/population-control industry.
I think you can go back even further than Eisenhower to find a strong parallel with our current president. FDR was a charismatic, narcissistic leader who believed that he could win over his enemies with the power of his intellect and personality. And he ended up leading us into the Second World War.
President Obama is not so much a pacifist as he is one that believes international conflicts can be resolved peacefully through his charisma. However, I have no illusions that if/when he fails to win over those powers whose strategic interests diverge sharply from his own, he won’t, as he promised in his victory speech last November, try to “destroy” them.
I think you can also discern in his appointments and other early actions that Obama and his team are shrewdly crafting an alignment of powers in the service of the new Administration. Systematically, it seems, the powerful are being wooed and integrated while the powerless are being excluded and marginalized.
For example, Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Commerce, is among the most hostile legislators in Congress toward the interests of U.S. workers, while his appointment to the National Economic Council, Diana Farrell, has “done more to promote outsourcing [of U.S. jobs] than nearly anyone else in America,” according to a labor group leader. In fact, her firm has made millions advising U.S. companies to transfer jobs overseas.
It’s becoming quite an impressive coalition: corporations, big financiers like Soros and Buffett, the Bush military administration, the news media, Hollywood, academia, the public school establishment, foundations, and so on. Add to that the Protestant mainline and black churches, and, if the President’s savvy campaign is successful, a large portion of the Evangelical Protestant movement.
That leaves, what? The Mormons and the Catholic bishops. If I’m on Obama’s PR team, I’m licking my chops to go after them. I’d be very afraid these days if I’m wearing a white suit, a miter … or a pre-birthday suit, for that matter …
For what it’s worth — and, I realize, it might not be worth much, given my own views — I agree with Eduardo that Neal Katyal is an exceptionally able, thoughtful lawyer. We’ve been friends for a long time, and while we disagree about many things, I am impressed by the fact that he is able, better than many of us, to work with commitment and passion, but also (to the extent humanly possible) without ideological blinders.
Here’s the link for the Sirota piece: http://inthesetimes.com/article/4203/team_of_zombies/
Along the same lines, this from Frank Rich’s column today: