Word is that if you want a top job in the Obama administration, be prepared to provide every IM and email over the past six months, beyond answering tons of personal questions. This administration of color apparently wants nobody with any color in their background--even to the point of rooting out F-bombs.
So don't pull that pin, my friends.
As soon as I heard that, I said to myself, "I'd never stand a f--king chance with these people!" only to immediately slap a hand over my mouth!
It will be interesting to watch the famously profane Emanuel police this one.
The no-drama Obama crowd need to feel a bit more urgency, methinks, as should any GOPers aiming to sabotage it on this asinine level.
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You'd think they'd disqualify those not firing-off f-bombs on Lehman Day or 777 Drop Day. I remember watching Lamb interview Romney last year sometime when he asked, as one of his first questions, if he'd ever drank or smoked. I thought: what a bizarre question to ask, right off the bat. 'No,' was the answer of course. I mean, everybody's gotta have a code, and that's fine, but I don't want somebody who has never sipped a beer to be president. I don't think it's a good idea to have a Team of Gandhis run the country. Asinine is the right word here.
Posted by Jarrod Myrick | November 15, 2008 11:26 AM
WOW.
Posted by Tyler | November 15, 2008 11:58 AM
So, I guess this settles it then. No place for Tom Barnett in the new administration, so quit your speculation! :)
Posted by Robert L | November 15, 2008 12:28 PM
Wrong on 2 levels, I think.
I seriously doubt that anyone who plays on this level is going to be excluded because of 'color'. They just want to know what's in the closet. Larry Summers is odds-on favorite to be Treasury Sec., and he's pretty damn 'colorful'. This transition is alot about the atmospherics of a post-Real Change' election.
Also, to happily mangle Rumsfeld, you govern with the opposition party you get, not the opposition party you want or wish to have at a later time. The GOP, like any animal in a corner, will get desperate and consequently vicous. It's not like they've suddently forgotten how to hold a press conference.
Posted by Dave | November 15, 2008 2:50 PM
I have to agree with Dave. I'm currently about halfway through the application myself and it rings lots of bells from the security clearance application process when I joined the US Army MI branch in the early 90's. Back then, I saw people with all sorts of closet-skeletons get a Top Secret clearance -- as long as they were willing to put the skeletons on display.
Posted by Matt Osborne | November 15, 2008 9:57 PM
I held a SCI (DoD) for over a dozen years and currently hold a Q (DoE) that I was approved for last year.
None of the many security apps I have filled out over the past two decades asked anything like this, much less asked me to turn over all comms for the past six months. Plus, the questions about relatives were very restricted in scope.
So I disagree that it's just another security scan that's not really any different in degree.
It's not about your willingness to confess your sins; that's expected and routine.
The point is the heightened way that the admin is looking to avoid putting anything in front of an approval process that can embarrass them. That's not comparable to the crowds routinely sucked in by the military-industrial-complex and given all manner of clearances. That's just chasing away talent and change agents, both of which tend to be more than just colorful. They tend to be major-league burrs under the saddle.
It won't be enough for Obama to caretake . . .
Posted by Tom Barnett | November 15, 2008 11:57 PM