Ground Rules

Alexis Simendinger over at National Journal's Lost in Transition blog has some good stuff: the documents that govern the relationship between the Bush and Obama transition teams. A lot of it is the usual concerns--how communication and agency-level office space will be designated, for example.

But the largest part of the memorandum is taken up with chains of communication and information control. The Bush administration and the Transition team have to designate specific contacts who will channel coordination and communication between the two teams. The transition teams will use an informal dispute resolution mechanism to deal with people who leak information determined to be "non-public." The Bush administration pledges to keep confidences communicated to them by Obama's transition team.

Some of this is about national security. Some of it is about leak and message control. Some of it is about establishing trust. It'll be interesting to see what does end up leaking (it's a big organization, some stuff is going to get out) and how leaks--and leakers--are ultimately dealt with.