2009: year of changes
Updated on 06 January 2009
So some surprises for the Democrats as the new year dawns, writes Felicity Spector.
They've (almost) gained a Senator, but lost a Commerce Secretary - while a man with no secret service experience whatsoever has been nominated to head the CIA.
First, that knife-edge Senate result: the comedian-turned-pundit Al Franken, author of 'Lies, and the Lying Liars who Tell Them', among other works, has been declared the new Democratic Senator for the state of Minnesota after a long and protracted recount handed him victory by 225 votes out of 2.9 million cast.
The result was certified yesterday by the state's independent canvassing board, but it's not all over yet. Mr Franken's Republican opponent Norm Coleman has pledged to challenge the recount in court.
He's got seven days to appeal or concede, but seeing as his lawyer Tony Trimble has already said there can be 'no confidence' in the recount results, another long drawn out wrangle is on the cards.
But unless there's a major upset the TV and radio star once best known for his impersonations of Mick Jagger, will become the 59th Democratic Senator, bringing with him, one hopes, some much needed satire to the Hill.
If you have to lose a Cabinet nominee, this is probably the way to do it - quietly, in a dignified fashion, unlikely to have any lasting impact.
More seriously, folks, the debacle over Bill Richardson's sudden withdrawal from his Cabinet nomination was more of a shock.
The Democrats had lined up a crack team of lawyers to vet his credentials but they must have downplayed the significance of a grand jury investigation into his time as Governor of New Mexico.
The probe is focussing on whether his office urged a state finance agency to take on a California based company that had donated to two political action committees linked to Richardson.
Aides insist he's done nothing wrong, although it was a distraction.
The Governor himself hasn't said much: "Sometimes your own dreams and plans must take a back seat to what is best for the nation", he said yesterday.
But if you have to lose a Cabinet nominee, this is probably the way to do it - quietly, in a dignified fashion, unlikely to have any lasting impact on Obama's first few weeks in office.
If liberals are worried that there's now no top-level Hispanic face in the administration, they're more excited about the new direction in the world of intelligence.
Huffington Post sees the selection of Leon Panetta as head of the CIA as "sending an unequivocal message" that the most hated policies of the Bush administration, backing all sorts of practices from black prisons to waterboarding, were over. Indeed last year Panetta wrote that the US "must not use torture under any circumstances".
He's bound to face tough questions in his confirmation hearing - it's a pretty big leap even for a former White House chief of staff, and Senator Dianne Feinstein, who's about to chair the Intelligence select committee, said she only learned of his selection when she heard it on the news, and would have preferred an intelligence professional.
But Obama has said he wanted more of a balance between military and civilian officials and this does offer the chance for a complete change of culture, a real break from the past.
Well, this was the presidency that promised not just change, but "change you can believe in". And barely a week into 2009, change is certainly what we're getting.
