In Transition

Talk about regime change. When President-elect Obama formally introduced the new Democratic party chairman, Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, at Democratic National Committee headquarters on Thursday, outgoing chairman Howard Dean was nowhere to be found. Perhaps for good reason.

It was bound to happen. As a senator, Barack Obama was a member of a legislative chamber that moves at the speed of glaciers. Now, as president-elect, he’s finding out what it’s like to ask Congress to do something quickly.

Just a few weeks ago, members of Obama’s team were talking openly about how nice it would be if Congress passed the stimulus bill in time for Obama to sign it on inauguration day. That talk didn’t last long, though, as Republican leaders noted that they might like to read the bill first, maybe even debate it.

Even Democratic leaders soon acknowledged that a Jan. 20 signing was probably a bit too much to hope for. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, for one, refused to commit to a deadline. And, of course, Obama himself has been promising an open and transparent process, which is hard to pull off if you’re trying to rush something through.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a potential damper on Leon Panetta's potential nomination as CIA director, said Wednesday that "all systems are go" now.

The California Democrat, who has been friends for decades with the former home-state congressman and White House aide, had been irked at not being consulted earlier as chairman of the Intelligence Committee about his possible selection.

Panetta's presumed nomination has been criticized for his lack of background in intelligence gathering.

But Feinstein said that, after speaking Tuesday with President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden, who each called her, that they agreed on the goal for unvarnished intelligence.

For the month of January, Vermont-based ice cream gurus Ben & Jerry’s have renamed boring old butter pecan ice cream.

Instead, in honor of the campaign slogan of the winning presidential candidate, they’re selling “Yes Pecan.” Get it?

The company says it plans to donate some of the proceeds from all cones sold to the nonprofi group Common Cause.

Ben and Jerry are no strangers to politics. During the primary, the company’s founders endorsed Barack Obama and began to sell cones of a “Cherries for Change” flavor. In 2007, the pair also created “Stephen Colbert’s AmeriCone Dream,” vanilla ice cream with caramel and chocolate waffle cone, the proceeds from which go toward a Steven Colbert’s charity.

— Leah Nylen

Incoming Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry today announced that confirmation hearings for Senator Hillary Clinton, President-Elect Barack Obama's designee to be Secretary of State, will be held Jan. 13, and the session to consider Susan Rice's nomination as United Nations ambassador will be held Jan. 15.

Senate Judiciary Democrats and the leaders of several civil rights groups defended attorney general nominee Eric H. Holder Jr.'s political independence and character Wednesday one day after the panel's ranking Republican sharply critiqued his record in a floor speech.

Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, raised concerns in a floor speech about Holder's ability to be political independent based on some of his decisions as deputy attorney general during the Clinton administration.

President-elect Barack Obama has told Congressional leaders he plans to nominate William Lynn to be deputy secretary of Defense, the House's top defense appropriator said Tuesday.

John P. Murtha , D-Pa., chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he had been briefed on the selection by Obama's transition staff and that he wholly endorsed Lynn to take over as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon. A Congressional aide said the formal announcement was expected later this week.

Former Iowa Gov. Thomas J. Vilsack, Barack Obama's choice to be Agriculture Secretary, got a warm (Republican) welcome today from fellow Iowan, Sen. Charles E. Grassley when the two met this week.

"We in Iowa and agriculture throughout the entire country is fortunate to have somebody like Governor Vilsack appointed to be secretary of Agriculture because, coming from Iowa, he's got a great understanding of agriculture -- most importantly -- the family farm as an institution within agriculture," Grassley said.

The meeting occurred Monday but Grassley put the spotlight on the get-together through audio comments posted on his web site, an e-mail memo to reporters and his weekly conference call with Iowa reporters today.

President-elect Barack Obama seems to have bought himself at least a bit of goodwill from Republican leaders by coming to Capitol Hill today to hear their views on the economic stimulus package he is about to propose.

He met with Senate and House leaders from both parties this afternoon, including the top two Republican leaders from both chambers, and the comments afterwards suggested that the Republicans didn’t think his listening was just an act.

President-elect Barack Obama and Vice President-elect Joseph Biden met with congressional leaders from both sides of the aisle this afternoon, and Obama said, "The main purpose of today's meeting is to emphasize that whereas in the past sometimes we have thought about issues in terms of Republican and Democrat, we are at one of those periods in American history where we don't have Republican or Democratic problems. We've got American problems, creating jobs chief among them."

"My commitment as the incoming president is going to be to reach out across the aisle to both chambers to listen and not just talk and not just try to dictate but to try to create a genuine partnership," he added.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was sitting to Obama's right, Majority Leader Harry Reid to his left when reporters were briefly allowed into the room.

House Minority Leader John Boehner said "I think the tone of the meeting went well - and I look forward to working with the new president and his team."

-- Kate Hunter