Oh, No! Not Liberals!

I missed this one while I was out of town. Apparently there is much wringing of hands over the notion that President-elect Obama might be listening to...liberals. I rather agree with Steve Soto's take on this:

Their candidate just ran on their platform and got his head handed to him by a centrist Democrat, who is allowing the broadest possible input into his policies and agenda, and still there are knuckle-dragging goons who are unhappy that Obama isn’t only listening to slugs like them.

Well slugs, let me clue you in: You lost, and so did your agenda and your policies.

Except of course, I wouldn't call them slugs (in public). But really, who did they think Obama was going to ask for advice? Them?

And then I might point out that the Washington Post article that Steve refers to (it's just one example) is a particularly pathetic exercise, both from a journalism standpoint and from the flimsiness of the argument put forth by the quoted conservative spokesperson. The article cites just the one spokesman, and he apparently doesn't know that there are liberals out there, but he's heard there are:

"It is disturbing," said Roger Clegg, a conservative opponent of Lee's appointment who is now watching the Obama advisers at the Justice Department. "The transition team as described to me was made up of nothing but people on the far left. Though Obama is more moderate, that makes you wonder what kind of advice the president is given, and what range of choices he'll be given when it comes time to make appointments."

That's it. That's all he's got. Not that some raving lunatics are taking over the asylum, but an unnamed person or persons described the transition team as being really, really liberal. But wait, there's less! The article describes two controversial Clinton nominees who are advising Obama. One is gay, and one is Chinese American and supports affirmative action. Oh, and someone from the NAACP is reviewing civil rights. Clearly these people must be plotting the radical overthrow of all we hold dear!

Apparently it wasn't enough for these folks to engage in all the fear mongering while they held power the last eight years or during the campaign season. They now apparently want to make us all afraid of ourselves. But the voters didn't seem to buy it, and I'm guessing they won't look at the moderately liberal government we're about to see with any degree of trepidation. Mostly they want their jobs, their health care, and their homes. Most of them are not terribly concerned with the labels attached to the people who help them out with that stuff.