A Bad Staff Week for Obama (so far)

You knew the entire transition period couldn’t go smoothly for President-elect Obama, but over the past couple of days, the transition has gone from a placid lake to riding high seas on the North Atlantic.

First, Bill Richardson turned down his appointment to be Commerce Secretary because of possible ethics violations concerning campaign funds given to him while he was Governor of New Mexico. As Commerce Secretary, Richardson would have been one of the crucial implementers of any economic stimulus plan that Obama and the Congress would have passed. Strike One.

Second, the choice of Leon Panetta for CIA Director has the intelligence community scratching their collective heads. Yesterday, almost immediately after the announcement, Obama had to get on the phone to personally apologize for the Panetta choice to Dianne Feinstein, the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Obama, and his staff are quickly learning that he is not a member of the Senate any longer and cannot assume that the Senate leadership of his party will just go along with anything he wants to do. Majority Leader Reid said yesterday “I don’t work for Obama.” Reid fired off a warning shot to the incoming administration that it will have to consult with Congress to get its agenda from the wish pile to the implemented pile. Strike Two.

Now would be a good time to regroup and to make sure those lines of communication are handled by competent people. A President cannot be expected, nor should he be asked, to micromanage every aspect of his portfolio of responsibilities. However, Obama needs to address any poor staff performance immediately because the vetting (Richardson) and communication (Panetta) mistakes are only going to be more troublesome and costly once he becomes the 44th President of the United States. One, two, three strikes…