presidential transitions and subsidized oppo research

9/11 Commissioners Jamie Gorelick (a deputy AG under Clinton) and former Sen. Slade Gorton (R-WA) penned an op-ed in the Times on reducing the transition process in major government departments. They have a good point: it takes forever to change a working bureaucracy (are you listening, Obamaniacs?), and that’s not good for national security. But one of their recommendations gave me pause:

The president-elect should be in a position to name his national security cabinet right after the election. To do so, he needs to be able to vet candidates now. We need to give the candidates the full resources — including F.B.I. background checks — they would otherwise get after the election to make their selections before November.

Great. So we can subsidize opposition research now? Does anyone honestly think it will take a campaign researcher more than 10 minutes to find a way to cleanly abuse the available background check?

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