Dog Blogging

President-elect Joe Biden and Dr. Jill Biden are set to give “their last interview of the year” in New York’s Times Square as part of @ABCNetwork's New Year's #RockinEve special with @RyanSeacrest.https://t.co/jqKxXr2ACD

— AP Entertainment (@APEntertainment) December 30, 2020

*frantically searching for game about puppy dogs and rainbows that can be delivered by end of day*

— Gerry Doyle (@mgerrydoyle) December 31, 2020

Mexico will repay the party guests. https://t.co/1ycwpqyvV6

— Daily Trix (@DailyTrix) December 31, 2020

Palate cleanser:

.@ktumulty was also part of the group.
She reports that Biden noted that he has taken some criticism for stocking his administration with many familiar figures
“One reason you need old hands is the old hands know where the old bodies might be buried.”https://t.co/Y399ujXQVH

— Alex Thompson (@AlexThomp) December 23, 2020

I think Tumulty has the right take — “Trump is trashing the government on his way out. Biden is confident he can fix it.”:

… “What this president has done and what his political appointees have done and what landmines are laid out there, I can’t tell you that I have a clear view of what they are,” President-elect Joe Biden says. “Many of the people with the competence to be able to tell us what exactly is going on in the Justice Department or the Energy Department, they’ve either been fired or they left — but they’re not there. And so I think it’s going to take a while to find out where the intentional as well as unintentional landmines are.”…

Speaking with a small group of columnists on Wednesday, Biden noted that he has taken some criticism for stocking his administration with many familiar figures, rather than bringing in more fresh faces. As Biden put it: “One reason you need old hands is the old hands know where the old bodies might be buried.”

He also said his team is having quiet consultations with “former Republican appointees, former Republican personnel telling us what they know and don’t know about how the system is rotten,” as well as GOP senators “worried about things being left untethered.”

Still, the soon-to-be 46th president sounded upbeat and confident about his abilities to marshal the resources — and the bipartisan political will — that he will need to lead the country out of the coronavirus pandemic. With covid-19 now killing about 3,000 Americans a day, he said, the costly denialism that Trump fostered in the early months of the pandemic is being replaced by “a new sense of urgency, I think, on the part of the public at large.”…

Biden also said that, as a president who wants to avoid inflaming a closely divided Congress, he plans to tread lightly when it comes to using his executive power — a declaration that no doubt will cause some heartburn on the left, where such caution is considered naive.

Upon his inauguration, Biden says he plans to issue executive orders to undo some of what Trump has done. He will instruct the United States to rejoin the 2015 Paris climate agreement, to protect immigrant “dreamers” whose parents brought them to the United States as children, and to reinstate environmental regulations that Trump did away with…

“It’s a balancing act, but I’m optimistic that we can get a lot of the things that I’d like to do done,” he added. “I’ve spent most of my career arguing against the imperial presidency. . . . We got three equal branches of government. I’m confident that there are a number of areas that are of such consequence that they go beyond the partisan boundaries.”…

Almost saved this one for New Year’s Day:

Dear 2021,

I’d like to introduce you to mean reversion.

Thought you two should connect, as I cannot think of a better collaboration than combining what you two bring to the table. You have much to discuss.

— Michael McWilliams (@JMichaelMcW) December 23, 2020