ShareThisOn the face of it, the rising concern about whether the Obama transition team will deliver just looks like pre-inaugural jitters. But there might be more to it than that.
One strident commentator proclaimed Obama and his Latino surrogates would be "held accountable" if they failed to deliver. The queasiness it stems from might best be described as the victors' disdain for the scruffy issues (and some of the people) that got their candidate elected. While Obama has been caught red-handed saying immigration is his first-year's priority, his gatekeeper Rahm Emanuel is famous for wanting to back off the subject.
By making Emanuel his first appointment, Obama sent an off-tune message to some of his loyal followers. It went down like one of those Rev. Wright sermons at High Mass.
So far the behavior might be annoying but not a full-blown slap in the face. Still, it is annoying.
For instance, in some Latino leadership quarters, consideration of New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as heading up the State Department and instead, being appointed to the Commerce Department, is a little like getting bumped from first class to coach. It smacks a little like an elder giving up a seat on the bus to a teenager. And this too has a story behind it.
As news that Richardson could become Commerce Secretary got around, a petition supporting Wen Ho Lee for the post was circulated by University of California-Berkeley professor Emeritus Ling-chi Wang and several Chinese Americans, gaining some 80 signatures. Wen Ho Lee had been a University of California scientist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As Secretary of Energy during the Clinton administration, Richardson revealed Lee's name to media and accused him of stealing nuclear secrets for China. The 60-year-old scientist went to prison for nine months. But after finding Lee innocent, the presiding judge criticized the accusation and said it "embarrassed the entire nation." President Clinton, the presiding judge and the New York Times apologized to Lee, but Richardson did not.
Perhaps there was some fallout to expect. But the Washington Latino leadership is chapped that all this was kept under wraps. They were not advised trouble might be coming. Perhaps they could have run interference. No, Obama team members just barreled ahead, making up their own minds without consultation, coming to their own conclusions, convinced they know better, and wearing the cloak of manipulators. This comes from the administration that said it would be the most transparent in history. That's one history they are not going to make.
And that's the point. Although a lot of praise and deference is going out to the appointment of Cecilia Munoz to the White House intergovernmental staff, it coincidently came as the administration-elect is reported not to be seriously looking at the tons of Latino names for the 7,000 positions it has to fill. In fact, Munoz might have been appointed to catch the flack for the administration if/when it veers away from immigration reform, on the pretext that attending to the economy is more important. If that happens, it proves they can't walk and chew gum at the same time, as Lyndon Johnson would say.
So far, Obama's transition team is filled with nearly 50 Latinos, all with impressive credentials. Most of them will end up in the administration. But folks with a history in Washington know that number is window dressing. B-team positions. Latino Washington remembers that change didn't start to happen until after the second inauguration during the Clinton administration.
No one seriously believes there's that kind of patience left among Hispanics anymore.
Jose de la Isla, author of "The Rise of Hispanic Political Power," writes weekly commentaries for Hispanic Link News Service. Email: joseisla3(at)yahoo.com. For more stories visit scrippsnews.com
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