Imagining Transition at the BIA, the MMS, the DOI, and the DOJ
Abramoff is ancient history, unless you're a 'skin, in which case Jack's shadow is still doing the rounds between K Street and Interior. So what could transition look like?
For a start, the Nixon, Haldeman, Erlichman model, which is the gold standard, the high-water mark for the Federal-Tribal relationship. Translated into Transition-Speak, coordinating Federal Indian policy stays "close" to the TT, not farmed out to some discrete hire/fires tagged for staffers for the eventual assistant secretary.
In the longer term, the transition could position FI policy as transitioning from Interior, where trees and bears and rocks live, to State, where Other Peoples live.
Next, the TT could spend some quality time with Eloise Cobell. There's a lot folks who haven't followed this for the past decade don't know, and recycled Clinton (Bill) people weren't particularly more clued in than the Bush/Cheney lot of political appointees.
Then there's the MMS. A wicked rich vein of corruption reaching many interesting places, almost all of which were protected by the DOJ in the Sansonetti and Wooldridge comedy of manors and revolving doors.
The TT could staff up the Hill policy desks with someone who owns the PL280 repeal task and get someone serious, Rob Williams comes to mind, to work on unraveling the Rehnquist nightmare that's created rape tourism in Indian Country.
And finally, there's Ross. A man in need of a vacation. Come to think of it Chad could do with one too. Club Fed or not, that's a never mind. But vacated. Gone. In TT speak that's a Special Trustee designated _now_, and the AUSA for the Eastern District of Oklahoma briefed that time on target (the CNO) is expected.