Ch-ch-ch-changes...‘Political Archaeologists’ Find Surprises During the Transition

In the NY Times, ex-Clintonites puzzling over the changes of eight years:

For the first time since they threw their old, boxy pagers over the White House fence on Jan. 20, 2001 — the BlackBerry as we know it wasn’t on the market yet — the alumni of the Clinton Administration have returned to their old haunts.

This time, they are members of “transition teams,” but several say they feel like more like political archaeologists. “The buildings look the same,” one said over coffee, “but everything inside is unrecognizable.” And as they dig, they have tripped across a few surprises.

None of these newly arrived archaeologists would allow their names to be used when discussing their findings; to preserve cooperation with the Bush White House in a handover-of-power that still has 49 days to go, President-elect Barack Obama’s top aides have imposed a gag rule. But few can contain their amazement, chiefly at the sheer increase in the size of the defense and national-security apparatus.

“For a bunch of small-government Republicans,” one former denizen of the White House who has now stepped back inside for the first time in eight years, “these guys built a hell of an empire.”