Tom Daschle is one of the biggest lobbyists in Washington.

Not to mention his awful record as majority leader when Bush first took office (anyone remember the Dems standing up for anything back then?).

Guess I'm back to thinking of Barack Obama as "Senator Slither" at this point.

Lieberman yesterday, Daschle today.

Why did I even bother to vote?

The HHS job would have been great for *Doctor* Dean. Aside from his obvious qualifications, he deserves props for the 50 State strategy and for helping the Dems to re-grow a spine.

I hope that Obama doesn't turn his back on Dean or on early supporters like Richardson, Kerry, and McCaskill.

He's not even President yet. Let him pick his own damn cabinet without running off the cliff of disgruntled assumption. The tone of some of the sniping makes me wonder just who would satisfy some of the posters here on Salon.

I'm pretty far left. Sure, I don't like Lieberman being appeased, but there's room for rational disagreement on that. (the Glen Greenwald debate was particularly good on the subject).

I'd like to see Obama have a chance to settle in, with the cabinet he wants to pick and the new Congress for a few months before we all start kicking him.

It doesn't seem right to me to start tearing down Barack Obama before he even has a chance to pull his working cabinet together and demonstrate how he will lead and guide policy-making.

It seems like Democrats are all too eager to rip our own candidate apart before we hear from him. Looking at things objectively, it's not surprising that he would pick people with government experience for posts that require government experience, and given our past, most of the Democrats with government experience who are still of working age served in the Clinton administration. Why would we be all bent out of shape about this -- did we think he would fill important senior posts with inexperienced people with no knowedge of how to get things done in Washington? Did we think he would fill important senior posts with people from the Bush administrations? Just what were we expecting?

How about giving the man a chance to create his government and then start to govern before we rip into him, one nipicking detail at a time.

There were scarcely ANY Democrats, inside or outside of government, who stood for anything during the first Bush term. The traumatized nation went along with the craziness. If we didn't realize this and have the capacity to understand it and get beyond it and see that governance under a leader who is intelligent, informed, judicious, wise and CALM will be different, we should have elected Dennis Kucinich.

He was every liberal's dream, philosophically, but intuitively, we knew he couldn't get the job done.

It would serve us all well not to start talking and acting like Republicans before the president even takes the oath of office.

Yes, Heyjude:

It *is* time to get on Obama and other Democrats' cases.

I put up with the "we don't have sixty votes so we can't do anything", "we'll don't want to be bitter" stuff for eight f*cking years. Well, enough already.

I am bitter. And I am mad. And I don't want to "Move On" and "let the healing begin", which I take for a euphemism for "let's not prosecute anybody for anything". We really need change in this country, because the government, regardless of who is running it has become a gigantic ATM for transferring our wealth into the wealth of the powerful few.

So, no I am not willing to give the guy a break. Tell me one way in which the Daschle and Lieberman decisions represent a change from the good old fashioned way of doing business in

Washington.

It's not like Obama hasn't been showing you so-called "progressive" his ass for months (e.g. FISA, campaign financing, etc.). Most of you were content to eat it up and make dubious rationalizations. Apparently, after the latest indication that he is "not the Obama you thought you knew", some of you are finally tired of pretending that ass is chocolate mousse while others are still holding on to illusions.

I think President-elect Obama still thinks he'll be able to work with Republicans and that they'd work with Daschle but not Dean.

Personally, I think the Republicans will try to prevent any substantive progress on any issue during an Obama administration if for no other reason than not letting the Democrats take credit for it.

The only way any of the legislation required for the changes so desperately needed in this country will come about will be without significant GOP participation.

Who is on your long list for HHS? And why are those people more qualified or better picks than Daschle?

Or, why do you think Daschle is Unqualified to lead HHS?

Here is one way that Obama's approach differs from politics as usual: We are not Red States and Blue States. We are the UNITED States of America.

Hate, anger and bitterness is not the petri dish in which change flourishes.

I am not angry, I am not bitter, and I am not interested in revenge. I believe people will be prosecuted, but not out of hate and vengeance, but because laws were broken. I believe new ideas will prevail, but not because the Democrats rise up to punish and revile Republicans, but because people see that working together works out to solve big problems.

I WAS MISERABLE for the last 8 years, so full of fear and hate and personal vendettas and objections for objections sake.

So I am not angry. I am relieved. Hopeful. Optimistic. And willing to give Obama a chance.

I guess the change Obama called for was the change he picked up to pay for his ads.

I saw a guy today on the street wearing an Obama hat and asked if he thought a bunch of white guys connected to the Clinton Administration was the kind of change he voted for. He couldn't answer.

Business as usual.