Handover Horror Stories

The good news for President-elect Barack Obama: following George W. Bush is only slightly harder than following Jane Fonda at a Veterans of Foreign Wars rally. The bad news: compared with governing, campaigning is easy.

As much as Obama may want to turn the page and make good on his change mantra during the first hundred days, he might take a moment to read about the Hoover-Roosevelt transition of 1932-33. Or peruse tales of the clumsy Clinton start after the 1992 election. The period between the first Tuesday in November and Jan. 20 can be a treacherous time for an incoming commander in chief, and history is rife with controversy—from radioactive cabinet nominee dramas to tales of political revenge, catty vandalism and petty theft. "The early months are so important," White House veteran David Gergen has said, "because that's when you have the most authority, but that's also when you have the least capacity for making the right decisions." A brief history of some of the most troubled presidential transitions:

2000- 01
When George W. Bush took office in January 2001, he aimed to make a clean break from all things Clinton. The acrimony, much of it stemming from the 2000 Florida recount and the Supreme Court decision in Bush v. Gore, apparently went both ways. Reports of office vandalism and thievery made their way into the press soon after the Bush team moved in.

An initial 2001 General Services Administration audit found little to the story, other than wear and tear when "tenants vacate office space after an extended occupancy." But Georgia Rep. Bob Barr pressed the matter, and the General Accounting Office began a deeper probe. A year later, the GAO released a report that found between $13,000 and $14,000 worth of damage. The vandalism included missing items like doorknobs, a presidential seal and "W" keys from nearly 60 computer keyboards. The 215-page report said the damage amounted to a "criminal act" but didn't specifically blame anyone. Clinton spokesmen acknowledged that there may have been pranks done in jest, but attributed the majority of the damage to normal wear and tear. In the end both sides claimed vindication, but the bitterness was a symbol of the entire 2000 election.

1992-93
The 1992-93 transition is generally remembered—even by those who worked on the first Clinton administration—as unfocused and undisciplined. Clinton Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers called the period "hell." In his autobiography, Clinton himself admitted that he "spent so much time on the cabinet that [he] hardly spent any time on the White House staff." One public embarrassment was the nomination of Zoë Baird for attorney general, which blew up shortly before the Inauguration. Baird removed her name from consideration after it was revealed she had employed several illegal aliens and neglected to pay Social Security taxes on their work. Clinton's second nominee, Kimba Wood, withdrew due to similar reports. Clinton seemed determined to nominate a woman for the position and, on March 12, Florida State Attorney Janet Reno was sworn in.

1988-89
John Tower—the former U.S. senator from Texas, Reagan and Bush adviser, and author of the Iran-contra investigative report—had his nomination as defense secretary shot down on a 53-47 vote. Among the criticisms: his ties to defense contractors and his pro-choice stance on abortion. Some Democrats targeted Tower for payback, angered over their feeling that George H.W. Bush's campaign had used negative tactics against Michael Dukakis in the 1988 election. But the issue that took up the most newspaper space was his reputed drinking and womanizing. The perception—fair or not—of Tower as a loose cannon overly fond of imbibing doomed his chances. In his memoirs, Tower blamed the episode on the media (whom he called a "lynch mob"), enemies gained over 27-odd years in Washington (especially the then Georgia Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn) and other "crackpots and busybodies." Dick Cheney, considered a moderate pragmatist, was confirmed unanimously 10 days later. Tower was the first cabinet nominee to be rejected in more than 30 years. He died in a 1991 plane crash.