New administration, same ol' Washington political pay offs

How many times did you hear Obama utter these words "Change does not come from Washington, Change comes to Washington"? In fact the first time Obama uttered those words were during his convention speech.

Is rewarding your big money donors with cushy ambassadorships sound like change is coming to Washington?

Jan. 10 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama will uphold at least one of Washington’s old ways: the appointment of campaign donors to plum ambassadorships.

“There probably will be some” political appointees serving abroad, Obama said at a news conference yesterday. “It would be disingenuous for me to suggest that there are not going to be some excellent public servants but who haven’t come through the ranks of the civil service.”

Obama, who campaigned as a candidate of change and vowed to limit the influence of money in politics, has said he will revamp U.S. foreign policy. All ambassadors serve at the pleasure of the president and are required to submit their resignations by Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, giving Obama about 170 posts to fill.

“He is going to be like every other president and is going to make political appointees of those people who helped moved his campaign forward,” said Steve Clemons an analyst at the Washington-based New America Foundation. Nominating a big donor to be ambassador to a tranquil Western European country, or a sunny Caribbean island is “a way to pay off his biggest supporters.”

After watching the legions of Washington insiders(mostly Clinton's people) that Obama has appointed, the promise of spending money we do not have, the promised deficit increases, the dishonest parsing of words, the political payoffs...

To you liberals, who worked you tails off to bring Obama's change TO Washington, where is the change?

This is the same ole Washington. Nothing appears to be changing in Washington with the exception of the nameplates in the Oval Office and around DC's upper echelon of power brokers.