Where's the Change? - On The Record| David Scribner's column from the Berkshire Record

Where's the Change?

By David Scribner

Yes, I did. I believed.

Believed we were to be, at last, at long last, people powered, not slavishly corporate powered, not insider Beltway powered, but powered by a new cadre of leaders in Washington. I believed in a new beginning, a new partnership between citizens and their government, without the interference of influence peddling by entrenched special interests.

I believed in a coalition making history, restoring America's reputation and credibility as a nation of laws and justice, of equality of opportunity. I believed in a coalition united in making progress toward a more perfect union - the slogan on a stack of stickers I bought -- a more honest, ethical coalition than the gang of corporate mercenaries who have been running the country for the past eight years. I believed in a new dawn of leadership with faith in the common good. I believed that change was coming to Washington and to the nation.

I believed. And like many in South Berkshire, I contributed to Barack Obama's campaign, not much but enough to get a snappy oval magnetic campaign bumper sticker. It was my first contribution to a presidential campaign.

I believed.

Now, I'm not so sure.

What finally sent warning flags flying was the report that former Clinton administration chief of staff Leon Panetta would be named Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. I'm no fan of the CIA, by any means. In its adoption of torture and of extraordinary rendition to its own special Gulags, the Agency has outdone the Russian's KGB or Stasi, the dreaded secret police of the former East Germany, for sheer brutality which has gained us nothing but scorn abroad and fear at home. Indeed, its tactics are more indicative of tyranny than democracy.

Maybe the Agency needs a good political hack, even if he has little experience with the intelligence community (is that an oxymoron or just moronic?), a director who can balance the need for security with the rights of citizens to be safeguarded from government snooping.

But it was the naming of yet another Beltway insider to the Obama administration, resurrected from the Clinton years, that awakened a host of doubts. Panetta wasn't the first current or ex-insider. He was the tipping point.

There was Rahm Emanuel, the tough guy congressman from Illinois, obviously an FOBAR. Then came Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State, a gesture to her fanclub, certainly not a FOBAR. Her husband has more foreign policy contacts than she does -- and most of them donate money - they'll have to sort out how to separate Bill's underwriters from American foreign policy. There was Bill Richardson for Secretary of Commerce - whoops - he's under investigation for influence peddling. How about Eric Holder at Justice - another Clinton alum, notorious for his carelessness in the presidential pardon department.

Sure, Tim Geithner, president of the New York Federal Reserve, seems like a bright choice for Treasury, but doesn't he belong to the same club that got us into this horrible financial crisis?

And how can we forget Robert Gates, the Bush Secretary of Defense, who's guiding the two wars we know about? Has he bought into the Bush/Cheney strategy of pre-emptive engagements, based on flimsy intelligent analysis that got us into Iraq, or will he advocate a less bellicose policy? Retention of this Bushie does not engender confidence in a new era. Think he'll get us out of Iraq, fire the Blackwater thugs, rescind the policy of kidnapping and torturing of anyone rumored to be a terrorist?

(Then there's the case of Rick Warren, the homophobic pastor from Southern California, who will bless Obama's inauguration. I suppose even bigots must have their place in the Obama pantheon, just as they had in W.'s.)

Just the other day, word leaked out that Obama would nominate Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN's health guru, to be Surgeon General. He's supposed to be a brilliant physician and media personality, but what does it say about his judgment that as a TV commentator he sneered at Michael Moore's brilliant documentary, "Sicko", which cataloged the scandalous failures of the nation's health care network.

It all seems as if it's déja vu all over again. Is this really the leadership team that's going to change direction? Can you see Gupta standing up to the drug companies and the insurance industry on behalf of universal single-payer health insurance coverage for every American man, woman and child, admitting that Moore got it right after all?

Can you imagine these Obama top guns facing down the auto industry, and telling them: "No federal handout, boys. No billions for ruthlessly destroying the public transportation infrastructure and then producing vehicles that are environmentally and economically reckless. Go ask your fat-cat partners in the oil industry for help, not the American taxpayer."

Can you believe that the Obama cabinet will put a lid on giveaways to financiers who are receiving hundreds of billions in taxpayer money that they're supposed to loan back to aforementioned taxpayers - with interest - after they've taken care of business?

What goes down comes around. The nation is run by the well-heeled and well-born as if it were a game of musical chairs on a public stage, a performance to which we're invited so that we can pretend we're part of it. The players are the same. Some are in and some are out - until the next round. The game never changes.

Still, I'll give Barack Obama the benefit of the doubt. I haven't altogether given up on belief. He isn't in office yet. He'll be facing appalling challenges: The climate's heating up; the economy is in the deep freeze; we're fighting a couple of wars over what's left. I'll take incremental progress, any progress.

Obama's got to be better than the last guy, right? Hope springs eternal.

This column originally appeared in the Berkshire Record.