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Memo to Obama aides: Don’t prank Trump or Clinton on your way out
Topic Started: Oct 1 2016, 04:07 PM (209 Views)
Copper
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Shortstop
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/wp/2016/09/29/memo-to-obama-aides-dont-prank-trump-or-clinton-on-your-way-out/

Quote:
 
Memo to Obama aides: Don’t prank Trump or Clinton on your way out

White House staffers, if you want to avoid a headache next year, take our advice and don’t imitate Bill Clinton’s team on your way out.

We’re referring to transition pranks, a tradition embraced most energetically by Clinton’s staff when handing the reins to George W. Bush in 2001. (You’ve probably heard about the missing W keys on White House keyboards.) There’s a reason President Obama’s senior aides are already setting expectations for a no-nonsense changeover in January 2017, no matter whether Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton takes over.

Not only do problems generate bad press, but they can also bring out the most neurotic tendencies of everyone involved.

Take this little-known Government Accountability Office report from June 2002, which comprises 220 pages of back-and-forth between the Bush White House staff, the Clinton White House staff and the General Services Administration about, in essence, who stole what doorknob.

So, in the interest of saving everyone from that kind of craziness, here is what White House staff should not do on its last day:

Scatter bumper stickers. Record obscene voice-mail greetings. Damage furniture. White-out computer keyboards. Smear Vaseline over desks. Unplug refrigerators. Write on walls. Take cellphones, TV remotes or presidential medallions. Glue telephones or drawers. Abandon holiday decorations. Smash locks.

Clinton’s team did all of this
, and at Congress’s request, the scene was meticulously reconstructed through nearly 200 after-action interviews by the GAO. Did you know Al Gore accidentally took a bust of Abraham Lincoln home, only to return it after Dick Cheney made a fuss? Now you do.

The report also includes anecdotes such as this one:

“A former employee … said that on his last day of work at the end of the administration, he left a voice mail greeting on his telephone indicating that he would be out of the office for the next 4 years due to a decision by the Supreme Court, and he provided his home telephone number.”

And insights like this:

“Staff [described] the office space as being ‘extremely filthy’ or ‘trashed out’ and [said] that a certain room contained ‘a malodorous stench’ or looked like there had been a party. … Three of the [GSA] team leaders said that they saw personal items left behind, such as unopened beer and wine bottles, a blanket, shoes, and a T-shirt with a picture of a tongue sticking out on it draped over a chair.”

In one case, the Secret Service actually took fingerprints from a door where a 12-inch presidential seal had been removed without permission. “No suspects were identified,” the GAO writes.

Let’s be clear: Only 108 of the then-roughly 1,200 rooms in the White House complex were affected, and only a fraction severely. But if you think the GAO was overdoing it, consider this: attorney-general-to-be Alberto Gonzales, then Bush’s White House counsel, complained its efforts were insufficient — in a 76-page letter.

“The President and his Administration had no interest — and have no interest — in dwelling upon what happened during the 2001 transition,” Gonzales wrote.

A casual reader might dispute this based on sections from his letter such as this one, about a “sticky substance” found on desks:



Or this, disputing the GAO’s method for counting pranks:




We’ll let readers decide whether the Trump or the Clinton administration will be more exacting about pranks.

But regardless, a final word of advice to Obama’s staff: If you do steal a presidential seal on your way out, try not to leave any fingerprints.

The Confederate soldier was peculiar in that he was ever ready to fight, but never ready to submit to the routine duty and discipline of the camp or the march. The soldiers were determined to be soldiers after their own notions, and do their duty, for the love of it, as they thought best. Carlton McCarthy
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jon-nyc
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Cheers
Copper
Oct 1 2016, 04:07 PM
“A former employee … said that on his last day of work at the end of the administration, he left a voice mail greeting on his telephone indicating that he would be out of the office for the next 4 years due to a decision by the Supreme Court, and he provided his home telephone number.”
Well, unlike the other things mentioned that one's kind of funny and pretty harmless.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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George K
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Finally
I want to know what the "sticky stuff" was.

Er, no. I don't.
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Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

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Klaus
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HOLY CARP!!!
How many people loose their job when the administration changes? I would have expected that only the senior positions change.
Trifonov Fleisher Klaus Sokolov Zimmerman
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jon-nyc
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The entire whitehouse staff changes, except for positions related to the facility itself (groundskeepers, butlers, etc). That's what they're talking about.

The vast majority of federal employees work for various agencies and they don't turn over. Just the leadership positions, as you suggest.

(Prior to the 1880s *all* non-military positions in the federal government turned over, which was chaotic as you might imagine. It also made the presidency an immense patronage machine, with predictable results)
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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Mikhailoh
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If you want trouble, find yourself a redhead
It's still an immense patronage machine, probably turning over more positions than it did then.
Once in his life, every man is entitled to fall madly in love with a gorgeous redhead - Lucille Ball
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Axtremus
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HOLY CARP!!!
Not pranking is the responsible thing to do. Good policy.
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Riley
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HOLY CARP!!!
Taking all the W's was pretty ****ing funny though. :lol:
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George K
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Finally
Riley
Oct 2 2016, 05:05 AM
Taking all the W's was pretty ****ing funny though. :lol:
In a 4th grade kind of way, I suppose.
A guide to GKSR: Click

"Now look here, you Baltic gas passer... "
- Mik, 6/14/08


Nothing is as effective as homeopathy.

I'd rather listen to an hour of Abba than an hour of The Beatles.
- Klaus, 4/29/18
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jon-nyc
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Mikhailoh
Oct 2 2016, 03:58 AM
It's still an immense patronage machine, probably turning over more positions than it did then.
You might think so just given the growth of government but it isn't so. When Benjamin Harrison took office in 1889 some 31,000 postmaster positions changed hands. It touched every town in America.
In my defense, I was left unsupervised.
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John D'Oh
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MAMIL
George K
Oct 2 2016, 05:12 AM
Riley
Oct 2 2016, 05:05 AM
Taking all the W's was pretty ****ing funny though. :lol:
In a 4th grade kind of way, I suppose.
It's hard to image how these people could learn to be so childish when they work in Washington.
What do you mean "we", have you got a mouse in your pocket?
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