Obama Transition Member Extolled the Short Switchover in 2000

Elizabeth Holmes reports on the transition. A member of Barack Obama’s transition team is no fan of long transitions. Seth Harris , a member of the president-elect’s team known as the Agency Review Working Group, wrote an op-ed in 2000 for the Washington Post outlining the pitfalls of a lengthy interparty transition. Harris, who had been a counselor to the secretary of labor under President Bill Clinton , was responding to complaints from then-President-elect George W. Bush on the shortened transition time after that year’s recount. “While this shorter period may make the transition team’s job more difficult, the rest of us should be grateful,” he wrote in the 700-word piece. Long transitions are filled with unnecessary steps, Harris argued. For example, there’s the need of “identifying and vetting candidates for more than 500 sub-Cabinet positions requiring Senate confirmation.” Without the time to fill those spots before inauguration in 2000, the White House staff ... (link)