Obama and Wall Street/ Hope and Cynicism

So I guess this is nothing all too shocking, but the fact that it isn’t shocking should be worrisome in itself. But Obama’s new chief of staff, Bill Dalley — who Ezra Klein has written about with good insight — has less than sparkling clean past. Of course, he is currently working for Wall Street giant J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., but James Downie has a much more interesting story to tell about Dalley over at Jon Chait’s TNR blog. Basically, he chaired Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign, which gave him high standing in Democratic circles, which made him an appealing candidate to run SBC Communications — formerly Southwestern Bell Telephone Company — because he could be used to gather Democratic votes on pro-SBC legislation… which is just what he did. Where the story gets really interesting is that he pushed for a pretty egregious bit of legislation that aimed to entrench this company’s hold monopoly on the telephone industry — at the expense of the consumers, mind you — in Illinois. I use the word monopoly, because a federal judge knocked down this law within a month after it was passed — and the speed of its passing is another shocking detail as well. But the most interesting part comes from Obama who said at the time, “Ramrodding bills through because you’ve got the clout to do so—rather than because you’ve got arguments on your side—is not a good way to do the people’s business.” Yes, so the guy who lead that “ramrodding” will now be the highest-ranking member of the executive branch. 

It’s all a bit dizzying. It’s hard to understand Obama’s logic on this pick, but I think the real question is whether there was anyone else who could have done this job, who doesn’t have this type of history — not too mention a history of anti-healthcare quotes as well. It’s not a cut and dry issue, 

It reminds of the Peter Orzsag debacle, and the difference between the expectations and “hope”s about the Obama administration coming in, and the realities of it. As a young person, I got swept up in it. And maybe I admit that with a bit of embarrassment or shame. But now we have daily reminders — Dalley’s nomination is another in just a long list — about these realities and further makes that “hope” seem like a distant and adolescent thing. 

Anyways, here is the thing about Peter Orzsag, the former Director of the Office of Management and Budget. For me, it really encapsulates a lot of the trajectory of dashed hope that is really a part of the Obama story. Read this New York Times profile of Orzsag from March 2009. It’s all a story of a long-time policy wonk who has spent the better part of 17 years — he was only 40 at this point — working in government. He’s all super-duper hard-worker with big policy hopes and aspirations: 

…Mr. Orszag, who grew up in Lexington, Mass., has always worked himself punishingly hard — a legacy, he says, from a math-professor father who glanced at test scores of 98 and asked about the 2 other points. “It was always, ‘When I was your age, I was a tenured professor,’ ” he said…

…He also [has been] training for marathons, sometimes startling colleagues by appearing in their offices at day’s end in head-to-toe spandex.

Now he keeps two books on his desk: the teachings of Epictetus, a Greek Stoic philosopher who espoused dispassion and self-discipline, and “The Strenuous Life,” by Theodore Roosevelt, an ode to pushing oneself as hard as possible…

…Mr. Orszag is the youngest member of President Obama’s team holding cabinet rank, a 40-year-old with what colleagues call a graybeard’s knowledge of how the government spends money. But he has little interest in merely keeping fiscal house.

His animating passions are far grander — health care, energy policy and Social Security overhaul, for starters. Everything about the way he has interpreted his new job speaks of ambition: the policy heavyweights he has hired for the Office of Management and Budget, his efforts to persuade cabinet secretaries to let him help shape their plans, a public profile as high as that of any budget director…

…“When people are saying this is not how O.M.B. has done things before, I’ve been shrugging my shoulders and saying this is not your father’s O.M.B.,” he said in a recent interview in his office, where a direct phone line to the president was just installed. (He has not yet dared press the little blue button.)…

…“He’s made nerdy sexy,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff…

Now compare that to the indictment by the Atlantic’s James Fallows on the ethics of Orszag leaving the OMB after two years, to work in a senior position for Citigroup, most likely with an annual salary in the millions of dollars. Then you will probably understand this feeling.