A little hope and change

The WaPo ran a piece yesterday pointing to some of the actual change that the Obama administration has brought to government,

The Obama administration is taking on Cheerios. And popular cold remedies and swimming pool drains and rhinestones on children's clothing.

With much of Washington focused on efforts to revamp the health-care system and address climate change, a handful of Obama appointees have been quietly exercising their power over the trappings of daily life...

The new regulators display a passion for rules and a belief that government must protect the public from dangers lurking at home and on the job -- one more way the new White House is reworking the relationship between government and business.

"In the Bush administration, the problem was that the political folks were hostile to the mission," said Michael A. Livermore, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Regulation at New York University Law School. "We've already seen the new direction of this White House play out in other regulatory aspects -- the Environmental Protection Agency and financial regulation. With the consumer protection agencies, you're going to see a lot more stuff happening because they fit Obama's broad vision for government."

While I was in law school I spent some time working for the Mine Safety and Health Administration. It was potentially very inspiring and important work. Except that Bush was President and the staff came to work everyday knowing full well that the political appointees running the Department of Labor and MSHA* were vehemently opposed to the stated mission of the agency.

These regulatory agencies have the ability to make a real difference in people's everyday lives and while we kvetch over the public option, DADT and Afghanistan there is a small army quietly going about their business and making this country a little bit better. That's not nothing. Not that we shouldn't continue to push for the big changes but lets not forget about this more behind the scenes work that is already occurring.

* at the time I worked there the head of the DOL was Mrs. Mitch McConnel and the head of MSHA was Antonin Scalia's son. So yeah, that was a depressing situation for a liberal do-gooder like myself.

HT - Steve Benen