A thoughtful Republican (they do exist) on the Office of the President Elect:

[Robb]

I had Thanksgiving dinner, as I expect many here had to, in the presence of more than one Repub. :D

One in particular, who I just know managed to hide from the TV, hold his nose and vote for McCain (and even money says his Repub wife didn't) says to me, "I dunno about this 'Office of the President Elect' thing. It comes off as pretentious, as if any of our side needs to see him as more pretentious. No other President-elect ever did that."

Treading carefully, because it was Thanksgiving and I was surrounded, I said, "Well, I'm sure if Obama could be dicking around right now after that campaign, he would be. It's just there's quite a bit to get done at the moment, wouldn't you say?"

He just mumbled something, and conversation shifted to "potato filler," which was a new one on me.

I have to admit I'm ignorant of whether there has been such an office before, although I'm certain none has ever gotten the attention, if for no other reason than the attention wasn't there to be had.

Anyhoo, if anyone thought the OPE might ruffle some GOP feathers, I can report it did to at least one. Mildly interesting story ends. :D

[grannie4peace]

1. i feel a little loose this a.m.

so, fuck the pug!! anyone with a brain can see obama IS a REAL LEADER!!!!

[mnhtnbb]

2. Major BS from Repubs who love to ignore history. Bush/Cheney were

renting space in DC faster than a NY minute to assemble the machine to dismantle our democracy and insure that all their haves and have mores base would rape the Treasury. And look at how successful they were!

I'm pretty damned sick of Repub selective memories.

[POAS]

3. Is your dinner companion

channeling Malkin?

From your post:

"I dunno about this 'Office of the President Elect' thing. It comes off as pretentious, as if any of our side needs to see him as more pretentious. No other President-elect ever did that."

In doing a google search, because your post piqued my curiosity, I found this from Malkin:

Okay, it’s one thing to take your campaign website, transfer it to a dot-gov domain, and invent an “Office of the President-Elect” out of whole cloth.

But now we’ve got Sen. Obama standing in front of a podium, in front of the world, for his first transitional press conference with an official-looking sign that reads “Office of the President-Elect.” Is that the official seal of the U.S. on the sign? Do they have authority to use it? What other make-believe offices are they going to invent between now and Inauguration Day? I can’t ever recall in my lifetime any mention of such an office. Can you?

Now I ventured there cautiously but found a response there informative.

The following is text of the "Presidential Transition Act of 1963":

ERVICES AND FACILITIES AUTHORIZED TO BE PROVIDED TO PRESIDENTS-ELECT AND VICE PRESIDENTS-ELECT

Sec. 3 (a) The Administrator of General Services, referred to hereafter in this Act as “the Administrator,” is authorized to provide, upon request, to each President-elect and each Vice President-elect, for use in connection with his preparations for the assumption of official duties as President or Vice President necessary services and facilities, including-

(1) Suitable office space appropriately equipped with furniture, furnishings, office machines and equipment, and office supplies as determined by the Administrator, after consultation with the President-elect, the Vice-President elect, or their designee provided for in subsection (e) of this section, at such place or places within the United States as the President-elect or Vice-President-elect shall designate;

(2) Payment of the compensation of members of office staffs designated by the President-elect or vice-President-elect at rates determined by them not to exceed the rate provided by the Classification Act of 1949, as amended, for grade GS-18: Provided, That any employee of any agency of any branch of the Government may be detailed to such staffs on a reimbursable or non reimbursable basis with the consent of the head of the agency; and while so detailed such employee shall be responsible only to the President or Vice-President-elect for the performance of his duties: Provided further, That any employee so detailed shall continue to receive the compensation provided pursuant to law for his regular employment, and shall retain the rights and privileges of such employment without interruption. Notwithstanding any other law, persons receiving compensation as members of office staffs under this subsection, other than those detailed from agencies, shall not be held or considered to be employees of the Federal Government except for purposes of the Civil Service Retirement Act, the Federal Employee’s Compensation Act, the Federal Employees Group Life Insurance Act of 1954, and the Federal Employees Health Benefits Act of 1959;

(3) Payment of expenses for the procurement of services of experts or consultants or organizations thereof for the President-elect or Vice-President-elect, as authorized for the head of any department by section 15 of the Administrative Expenses Act of 1946, as amended (5 U.S.C. 55a), at rates not to exceed $100 per diem for individuals;

(4) Payment of travel expenses and subsistence allowances, including rental of Government or hired motor vehicles, found necessary by the President-elect or Vice-President-elect, as authorized for persons employed intermittently or for persons serving without compensation by section 5 of the Administrative Expenses Act of 1946, as amended (5 U.S.C. 73b-2), as may be appropriate;

(5) Communications services found necessary by the President-elect or Vice-President-elect;

(6) Payment of expenses for necessary printing and binding, notwithstanding the Act of January 12th, 1895, and the Act of March 1, 1919, as amended (44 U.S.C. 111);

(7) Reimbursement to the postal revenues in amounts equivalent to the postage that would otherwise be payable on mail matter referred to in subsection (d) of this section.

(b) The Administrator shall expend no funds for the provision of services and facilities under this Act in connection with any obligations incurred by the President-elect or Vice-President-elect before the day following the date of the general elections held to determine the electors of the President and Vice President in accordance with title 3, United States Code, sections 1 and 2, or after the inauguration of the President-elect as President and the inauguration of the Vice-President-elect as Vice President.

(c) The terms “President-elect” and “Vice-President-elect” as used in this Act shall mean such persons as are the apparent successful candidates for the office of the President and Vice President, respectively, as ascertained by the Administrator following the general elections held to determine the electors of the President and Vice-President in accordance with title 3, United States code, sections 1 and 2.

(d) Each President-elect shall be entitled to conveyance within the United States and its territories and possessions of all mail matter, including airmail, sent by him in connection with his preparations for the assumption of official duties as President, and such mail matter shall be transmitted as penalty mail as provided n title 39, United States Code, section 4152. Each Vice-President-elect shall be entitled to conveyance within the United States and its territories and possession of all mail matter, including airmail, sent by him under his written autograph signature in connection with his preparations for the assumption of official duties as Vice President.

(e) Each President-elect and Vice-President-elect may designate to the Administrator an assistant authorized to make on his behalf such designations or findings of necessity as may be required in connection with the services and facilities to be provided under this Act. Not more than 10 per centum of the total expenditures under this Act for any President-elect or Vice-President-elect may be made upon the basis of a certificate by him or the assistant designated by him pursuant to this section that such expenditures are classified and are essential to the national security, and that they accord with the provisions of subsections (a), (b), and (d) of this section.

(f) In the case where the President-elect is the incumbent President or in the case where the Vice-President-elect is the incumbent Vice President, there shall be no expenditures or funds for the provisions of services and facilities to such incumbent under this Act, and any funds appropriated for such purposes shall be returned to the general funds of the Treasury.

SERVICES AND FACILITIES AUTHORIZED TO BE PROVIDED TO FORMER PRESIDENTS AND FORMER VICE PRESIDENTS

Sec. 4. The Administrator is authorized to provide, upon request, to each former President and each former Vice President, for a period not to exceed six months from the date of the expiration of his term of office as President or Vice President, for use in connection with winding up the affairs of his office, necessary services and facilities of the same general character as authorized by this act to be provided to Presidents-elect and Vice Presidents-elect. Any person appointed or detailed to serve a former President or former Vice President under authority of this section shall be appointed or detailed in accordance with, and shall be subject to, all of the provisions of section 3 of this Act applicable to persons appointed or detailed under authority of that section. The provisions of the Act of August 25, 1958 (72 Stat. 838 3; U.S.C. 102, note), other than subsections (a) and (e) shall not become effective with respect to a former President until six months after the expiration of his term of office as President.

AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS

Sec. 5. There are hereby authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator such funds as may be necessary for carrying out the purposes of this Act but not to exceed $900,000 for any one Presidential transition, to remain available during the fiscal year in which the transition occurs and the next succeeding fiscal year. The President shall include in the budget transmitted to the Congress, for each fiscal year in which his regular term of office will expire, a proposed appropriation for carrying out the purposes of this Act.

Approved March 7, 1964

[thoughtcrime1984]

4. I don't think I'd want any President Elect to sit there with a thumb up his ass

waiting for the current lame-duck Resident to finish his two-term folly. The current situation begs for a leader to step forward, and the fact that Obama is doing this is hurting the feelings of the Repubs. Well too fucking bad...

[Condem]

5. A Thanksgiving tradition in my wifes family is....

... to state what you're thankful for in the past year. I, of course, toasted the new administration. My sister-in-law retorted that Obama sucked and had no experience. I did the "Caddyshack" s-s-s-s-s-sucks? and came back with the answer that never fails to shut a repub up. I beleve Lincoln was quite inexperienced and I believe he ended up doing OK. Wouldn't you say? Never fails. When it came to my brother-in-law (hardcore R) he shocked everyone by stating, after waffling for more than a month he went with the "winner". He continued that he was just fed up of the last eight years. The next day they did a day trip to Chicago and bought me a Obama tee. Beautiful!!!!!

[BumRushDaShow]

6. I picked up this broadcast live from AM 1500 WFED in D.C. earlier this month

And found they have archives of their programs:

Presidential Transition Center completed
Gail Lovelace, CHCO at GSA and senior officer on GSA's transition team, talking with FederalNewsRadio's Max Cacas

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/emedia/136482.mp3">MP3 Posted Online: 11/4/08

(above taken from here: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=276&page_num=32)

EDIT to add another:

Setting Up Shop
Gail Lovelace, GSA's Chief Human Capital Officer and Senior Career Executive for Presidential Transition, talks with Max Cacas about the Presidential Transition Center.

http://www.federalnewsradio.com/emedia/136486.mp3">MP3 Posted Online: 11/4/08

(above taken from here: http://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=276&page_num=31)

One of the most fascinating descriptions of what they do for the transition and a little history of it. It was broadcast in the evening the day before the election. Take a listen.

[CTyankee]

7. It's a damn good thing that Obama is "doing that," i.e. using his office

and his status to assure America and the world that a new, brighter day is coming and with it, hope.

As I read the text of the "Presidential Transition Act of 1963" as listed below, he has every right to call his status as an "office." It IS an office. The Act grants him office space, staff, travel, expenses, "communications" (that right there conveys a lot!), postal, etc.

Add this one to the list of lame right wing talking points...