Obama to the White House: transition's delicate dance

President-elect Barack Obama's supporters will remind him these are cautious times between now and Inauguration Day. He must be alert because he will be tested. They are talking about the Bush administration.

Presidential transitions have their own unique political tension. For all of the gracious offers to help smooth the way, as President Bush did in a well-received Rose Garden speech, there is a deep suspicion partisan bureaucrats are busy locking policies in place.

Obama's incoming team is already looking at a late attempt to impose so-called resource-management plans on public lands, which would expand oil and gas leasing. Red flags have been raised about land near national parks, especially in Utah.

High on the list of targets for Obama are White House policy decisions on stem-cell research. The Bush administration narrowed both the scope of research permissible with federal dollars and the amount of money available.

Last minute end runs to frustrate and stymie the next occupant of the Oval Office cut both ways. The Bush administration spent most of two terms working to roll back Clinton-era forest-management regulations enacted just before he exited the White House.

Bush surrogates lifted bans on snowmobiles in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks and logging restrictions for roadless areas. Critics complained that Bush continued to whittle away at the Northwest Timber Plan.

Obama's team will be looking for anything that limits its options on economic recovery, including tax structuring and tax relief for the middle class.

The early days of the Obama presidency create an opportunity and momentum to bring a highly desirable measure of transparency to the executive branch.

Start with the Justice Department and the attitudes about civil liberties, political independence and strange and mysterious executive orders.

Explore everything from drawers full of notes about the laws President Bush declared he would not obey or enforce, to the latest revelation of a secret Pentagon directive dispatching military combat teams around the globe.

Open up the doors and windows and let the light shine in. Let the ultimate employers judge how things have been run, and what ought to go and stay.