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Tyndall Report had a premonition as early as last Thursday that the period between now and Inauguration Day could be sickly sweet with vignettes of how adorable the next First Family is going to be. So it was gratifying, in a way, to hear NBC anchor Brian Williams confess that the gush he ladled out Monday was "inescapably cute" but "irrelevant." The tidbit was the West Wingesque insider glimpse into the secret code names the Secret Service had assigned to the First Family: Renegade and Renaissance and Radiance and Rosebud. When his viewers protested that Williams was putting seven-year-old Sasha in danger by blowing her Rosebud cover, the anchor had to own up that in these days of encrypted radio the codes "no longer serve any real security function…The Secret Service loves the tradition. They come up with terrific names. They release them to us for broadcast."
As far as the work of the transition is concerned, CBS' Chip Reid told us that Barack Obama and his aides are "intensely focused on plans for easing the economic crisis." ABC's George Stephanopoulos reported that the federal government may borrow up 3% or 4% of GDP--about $500bn--for stimulus spending on infrastructure, alternative energy, unemployment extensions and aid to state and local government. ABC's Jake Tapper updated us on the rules that forbid lobbyists from working on the Obama transition team. They are allowed to participate, he said with a straight face, "just not in the area of their expertise."
Translation--we do not mind influence peddling as long as it is incompetent.
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