Yesterday we learned about Rahm Emanuel becoming Obama’s first choice for Chief of Staff. Yes, the same Rahm Emanuel who upon learning of the Democratic victory in 2006 stood up in front of his staff at the DCCC and exclaimed, “[Republicans] can go f*** themselves.”
And today we learn that Robert Gibbs has been tapped to be Obama’s Press Secretary. What does Gibbs bring to the new Obama World Order? The kind that even Markos Moulitsas Zuniga of the world’s most popular liberal political blog, the Daily Kos, said of Gibbs in 2007:
“Obama clearly dipped into the slimiest corners of DC to pluck out Gibbs.
Politics is dirty business, indeed. And there’s no doubt that Obama’s rapid response has been stellar.
But one can’t help but get a little cynical hearing Obama talk about ‘changing the tone’ and all that bullshit, while hiring a well-known smear-meister best known for his work trashing other Democrats.”
Rahm and Gibbs. Professional smearmeisters who have an established reputation of being overtly partisan. Ya know, I figured I’d be saying I told you so to a lot of my friends that were Obama supporters…I just never knew it would start so early.
UPDATE: You can add Axelrod to the list. He’s Obama’s Rove.
And I would also like to stress that I’d have no problem with these appointments had Obama run primarily on getting his agenda done. Instead, he ran on bipartisanship and bridging the divide between Republicans and Democrats; changing the tone, as Kos puts it. Instead, he has already violated the trust provided him by the electorate by making his first appointments individuals that so clearly represent opposite of the theme of his campaign. Amazing.
