Pacific Northwest Wants Some Appointment Love for Its Support of Obama

Seattlepi.com columnist feels that his region has been locked out of the Obama transition:

What's with Obama? The harvest this week has been an environmental "team" drawn from New Jersey, Florida (by way of Washington, D.C., consulting) and the mayor's office in Los Angeles.

A year ago in Iowa, ex-Gov. Tom Vilsack was Bill Clinton's warm-up act on the Hillary campaign trail. A local activist in Carlisle bent my ear about how Vilsack had vetoed local counties' bids to control the size and smell of giant feedlots for hogs that have proliferated across Iowa.

Vilsack is the new secretary of agriculture. Does he represent "change we can believe in"?

There do seem to be contradictions and short-shrift to change in the transition so far. We shall see how things shake out after inauguration (which is much more important than today's controversy about who performs at inauguration; performative prayer is empty and moot).