Light: Push for Good Government Reform Should Follow 'Intensely Difficult Period'
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: With more on this situation, we are joined by Paul Light. He is the vice president of the Brookings Institute and the director of the Government Studies Program. Good to see you. Thanks for joining us.</s>PAUL LIGHT. BROOKINGS INSTITUTION: You bet.</s>KAGAN: Let's first pick up with this criticism of some people out there, perhaps of both camps, of how they could be talking about a transition team right now, saying how can you do that? this election is not even resolved? But in fact, as some within the Bush camp point out, just to be realistic, don't you have to have a transition team working and getting ready, just in case?</s>LIGHT: Well, I hope that both candidates have set up transition teams, whether they're public or private, whether they're visible or not, both candidates have to act reasonably about taking over the reins of government once the election is declared. Both candidates have done some transition planning before the election and they should both be doing transition planning right now. This is a fixed target here. The transition is a very brief moment of time, and if they don't do some transition planning today, they are going to be in serious trouble on in inauguration day.</s>KAGAN: And that transition is built into our system. And because you are an expert, maybe you can give us a little civics lesson here, that is unique to our U.S. system. Isn't it interesting that we do have this time even to look back at the election? In other systems, you are elected one day, and you are in office the next. In the U.S. system, though, we have time to figure this all out.</s>LIGHT: Well, we do. I mean, but the American system also has a very large number of political appointees who serve at the president's pleasure, many of whom are also subject to Senate confirmation. In the British system, the day after the election, the prime minister leaves and so do all of the prime minister's people. In the United States system, we wait until the end of January to have the formal inauguration, and then we have a relatively long president where the Senate reviews the cabinet and sub-cabinet appointees to make a decision on who is qualified for office. So we have a long period where the president-elect has to consider the types of people that he wishes to serve, and then we have the Senate inspecting the qualifications of those individuals before final confirmation.</s>KAGAN: Looking again, once this is all said and done, what kind of political reform do you think this will come out of this, if any?</s>LIGHT: Well, you know, I actually thank is a profoundly important people, especially with the divided government we face next year, for a good government reform. Every period in American history of intense partisanship and scandal, including Watergate, has been followed by a burst of good government reform immediately after. You look back to the mid-1970s and there was one bill after another that Congress and the president passed with near unanimity, trying to prove to the American public that they could work together. I expect that same kind of push for good government reform to follow this intensely difficult period.</s>KAGAN: But because of that pressure and because of the divided government, in a way, do you kind of feel sorry for the guy who is going to win this all?</s>LIGHT: Well, you know, the presidential appointments process is rather like a concrete pipe. It does not expand infinitely with delay. I feel very concerned at this point, that this debate about who won the election does not drag out to the point where we won't have an administration in place until 2002. Already, we're projecting that the next president will be lucky to have his appointees in place by November 1st of 2001. And everyday we lose in this transition, through delay, is like a week next year. We could be talking about 2002, before we have a fully functioning cabinet and sub-cabinet in place.</s>KAGAN: A lot to do, a lot to figure out. Paul Light, from the Brookings Institution, thanks for joining us this morning.</s>LIGHT: You bet.</s>KAGAN: Good to see you.