President-elect Barack Obama

We Must Chill

You know, I'm thinking that maybe the far-right doesn't need to do a goddamn thing for the next four years. Why? Because if today was any indication, we're going to totally crap our cages every time the Obama administration doesn't follow our orders. Naturally, I hasten to repeat that we're not the Republicans and falling in lockstep with everything the new president does would be a mistake.

But holy hell.

Between the Lieberman outrage and now this hypertensive overreaction to the Holder announcement, we might as well tell Hannity and Limbaugh, "Step aside, boys. We got this." I mean, other than a kinda-sorta go-ahead for the Marc Rich pardon, Holder, at first glance, seems like a solid choice for AG. Hell, this civil liberties quote went a long way towards convincing me.

As for the "he's not change!" gripe, Jamison Foser responds:

First, the suggestion that hiring Clinton administration alums is inconsistent with "change" is dependent upon the belief that the Clinton and Bush administrations were identical. Nonsense.

Second, the suggestion is predicated on the assumption that the Clinton administration was a monolith; that everyone who served in the administration has the same opinions and approach to policy and to politics. This, again, is nonsense: thousands of people served in the Clinton administration -- some of whom supported and worked for Barack Obama's campaign.

Right.

Seriously, now, it's probably not a good idea to totally lose our shpadoinkle every time an Obama announcement rubs us the wrong way -- at this point, there's no need to turn everything into some kind of spasmodic "he's betraying us!" red alert. Disagreements with the administration are bound to happen, but it's also important to keep an eye on the larger narrative thread. Where's he going with this? What's the strategy? Meanwhile, I can think of a long, long list of Republican crazy to prosecute, too.

So in a word: chill.

UPDATE: The more I scan the blogotubes tonight, the more confident I feel about my "chill" opinion.