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Like Tell-All Potboilers? Join the Obama Team!!!
Oh yeah, forget to mention, the tell all is you, and the pot being boiled is your life.
Not sure how this didn't surface yet on TPM, but apparently the most privacy invading vetting ever (in this country at least) is taking place now - For a Washington Job, Be Prepared to Tell All. Anyone in your family own a gun? What are your aliases on the internet? Have a copy of every resumé you've sent out in the last 10 years? Every activity you've been paid for? What organizations you belonged to? Net worth statements for all loans? All businesses your spouse has been involved with? Any possibly embarrassing associations by family? Any information that might be embarrassing to you, your family or the President-Elect? Description of your most controversial moments during your career?
Well, I can certainly understand Hillary not wanting to be vetted unless they were serious. As for me, I figure I'll finish writing my tome of controversial moments somewhere around the end of Obama's 2nd term, and I sure hope someone with a sense of humor shows up to review Desi's blogs. But at least I'm spared one area of grilling - I never knew nor served on a board with William Ayers. Hmmm, I guess that snarky comment alone might have sunk my application. As Sarah Palin would say, "C'est la vie".
Not sure how this didn't surface yet on TPM, but apparently the most privacy invading vetting ever (in this country at least) is taking place now - For a Washington Job, Be Prepared to Tell All. Anyone in your family own a gun? What are your aliases on the internet? Have a copy of every resumé you've sent out in the last 10 years? Every activity you've been paid for? What organizations you belonged to? Net worth statements for all loans? All businesses your spouse has been involved with? Any possibly embarrassing associations by family? Any information that might be embarrassing to you, your family or the President-Elect? Description of your most controversial moments during your career?
Well, I can certainly understand Hillary not wanting to be vetted unless they were serious. As for me, I figure I'll finish writing my tome of controversial moments somewhere around the end of Obama's 2nd term, and I sure hope someone with a sense of humor shows up to review Desi's blogs. But at least I'm spared one area of grilling - I never knew nor served on a board with William Ayers. Hmmm, I guess that snarky comment alone might have sunk my application. As Sarah Palin would say, "C'est la vie".
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Hey, Des, put me down as a reference. I'd love to see you on 'Team Obama!' You'd be a great asset for humor and honesty and a real down-to-earth sensibility.
November 16, 2008 9:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
What? Are you workin' for the GOP?
Good Godfrey, I don't even want to imagine it. Really. Stop. I'm imagining it. Nooooooooooo.......!!!!!
;-)
November 16, 2008 10:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
Hey, Quinn -- I'll give you a rec too! I know, you two can hold the offices of good cop/bad cop. You & Des can work out which is which!
November 16, 2008 10:52 AM | Reply | Permalink
Tag team Canadian Mounties with Southern Highway Patrol. Awful cop-awful cop. Folks have been worrying about the Obama gestapo, and here you are cheering on its formation.
November 16, 2008 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I gotta say, if Obama DIDN'T provide a screening system to keep people like you & I out, I would have lost a lot of faith in him.
I mean, if you were out driving down some back road with a busted rear light, and two cops pulled you over, one that looked like Dudley-Do-Right, and the other like Deliverance Dude, don't tell me you wouldn't be sweating.
November 16, 2008 4:53 PM | Reply | Permalink
It's a feature, not a bug.
And if they can co-opt us with a bit of free beer (well, fighting between Labatts and PBR we might not make it that far), safer than having as wander the streets at night, oh me droogies? I viddy already a bit of the ol' ultraviolence set to Ludwig van.
November 16, 2008 6:28 PM | Reply | Permalink
23/6 has their version of this story: "You'll never work for Barack Obama"---
http://www.236.com/news/2008/11/14/youre_not_fit_to_shine_the_oba_10244.php
And the related "How fast can we be disqualified from a job in the Obama administration?"---
http://www.236.com/news/2008/11/13/how_fast_can_we_be_disqualifie_10239.php
November 16, 2008 11:07 AM | Reply | Permalink
Heh heh heh, take it up the ass while texting with Google Goggles disabled. Great going, guys. Disqualified in microseconds. Maybe we should do what the Brits do, form a shadow government. Looks like it'll be much more fun. Maybe they can outsource stuff to us to actually get things done, as well as communicate with the real people out there.
Though from what someone tells me, Sarah Palin may indeed qualify as one of 7 people who do meet the hiring criteria. Oh wait, I see the word "joke" written in the margin. Never mind.
[And silly me, I went out and bought a few new teddies when someone said he was going to form a "cross over" government. Guess I misunderstood what the "transition" team was about. Wonder if I can get my money back. Should've purchased at Nieman Marcus.]
November 16, 2008 12:19 PM | Reply | Permalink
PS - great site. "Bush has 2 regrets; we provide the other 37."
Regrets? I've had too few. And then again, none you should mention.
Yes there were times I'm sure you knew, I was a dick, but so were you. My record blows, but so it goes, I did it my way.
November 16, 2008 12:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Speaking of dicks, has anyone checked out Dickipedia? Unfortunately they were being dicks and didn't let me register my Hip Hop name immediately (hold your guns there, Quinn) so I could pre-emptively start my own page proclaiming how cool and clever I am.
Oh oh, I just realized I accidently linked the Obama entry instead of the home page. DON'T CLICK THAT LINK!!! Shit, too late. Sigh. Another progressive head explodes, wonder who's going to clean up all this mess.
November 16, 2008 12:45 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Barack Obama is married to Michelle Obama (nee Robinson), with whom he has five children: Sondra, Denise, Theo, Vanessa and Rudy."
Beautiful.
Personally, I'm gonna wait this one out, and apply when the Borat Administration gears up.
November 16, 2008 4:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
Great, man - hearing he plays "throw the Jew down the well" wasn't enough of a deterrent? What, secret penchant to play goat ball on the international scene?
November 16, 2008 5:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Oh, forget Future President Elect Borat's opinions & policies. I just figure his screening will necessarily be less-than-stringent. I'm gonna make out like a bandit. FREE GOAT!
November 16, 2008 5:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
I hear the curry is excellent.
November 16, 2008 5:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
troubling...but maybe necessary.
November 16, 2008 12:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
But if you have on your c.v. that you've helped a president win an impeachment trial, you're hired!
There's only been the few announcements, but so far, I must admit that I am most pleased, as Obama seems quite aware of main primary voter concerns that he would not be able to hit the ground running as quickly as Hillary could, and is attentive to being pre-emptive about that. I think Craig as White House counsel is a very savvy pick, anticipating the inevitable GOP tricks and hiring the best person possible to advise on them, with loads of experience.
November 16, 2008 6:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
I disagree with your statement that Obama is motivated by the perception of his not being able to hit the ground running but that Hillary could. He has demonstrated mightily his ability to hit the ground where it needed to be hit, while Hillary misread things and lost because of it.
I think Obama is smart enough to bring in the people that will help him be successful; he is comfortable in his skin so he does not hold useless grudges; his campaign showed a masterful management style.
I guess what I am trying to say is that I think the reason Obama is doing what he is doing is because he thinks it will work; not because he is worried about other peoples' perceptions. Of course I don't know this any more than you do, but I am basing it on my observations over these many months.
November 16, 2008 7:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
I meant it was something that concerned me and other voters when comparing him with Hillary, and that it's starting to look like there was no need for that concern. I think anyone who said they knew one way or another before he was elected that he would go this way and not go the way of bringing in all fresh newbies (a mistake both Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton made) was just guessing. Hillary had a pretty unique qualificiation in that regard in that she had been privy to all kinds of mistakes and successes inside an administration, and knew thousands of people that would fill appointment positions well and those that wouldn't fill them well, the "failures" too, something most other candidates don't, it was one of her big plus factors.
For the umpteenth time, as some people on this site don't believe me, I think they each had strong points and weak points and that added up to two pretty equivalent candidates for most of the primary. And now it looks to me like he learned something from running so long against Hillary, which ended up making him a better candidate than her by the end.
November 16, 2008 8:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
The Times story is truly bordering on the insane. In an age where we've recently heard that "privacy will have to be redefined", it's hard to imagine that the younger generation will ever be able to qualify for such positions in the future (Facebook and Myspace -- and GOOGLE searches! -- are forever.)
This questionnaire alone would disqualify Hillary for any government job given her and Bill's holdings in companies, etc.
It's about the equivalent of the government equating marijuana use (single time) to a heroine addiction (yes, they are lumped together on government forms). It's a leftover from the previous generation and slowly fading now that we have our first President who admits to doing cocaine at one point in his life.
Now: would this post disqualify me for a position in the Obama administration?
November 16, 2008 8:05 PM | Reply | Permalink