I remember when I first worked in Washington, D.C. for a congressional committee almost eight years ago.  It was the Committee on Government Reform.  It was easy to crack jokes about government and reform.  People would ask “Isn’t that an oxymoron?” and it would be easy to laugh.  In recent years it has been that particular committee that has had some doozies when it come to “government reform” including looking into steroids in baseball.  How do steroids in baseball coincide with government reform?  You’ve got me.  But since my days working for the committee, I’ve tried to keep an eye out for how government works to reform itself.  In Indiana, it has taken drastic steps.

In an effort to cut costs, streamline government and more importantly, save tax payer dollars in a struggling economy, Indiana Governor Mitch Daniels has taken bold initiative in his agenda this year, that would eliminate township government, make several of the county elected positions appointed, call for a single elected county executive instead of three county commissioners (that currently act a legislative and executive body) as well as many other moves meant to streamline local government.

Why such broad sweeping changes?

President-Designate Obama (technically that is the correct term as the Electoral College doesn’t ratify the states votes from election day until December 15 officially making Barack Obama President Elect) has been swift to fill out his Cabinet as well as many of the other presidential appointed positions.  Though his Cabinet level appointees must receive Senate confirmation, it would appear as if none of them will have too much trouble in the confirmation process.

That said, Obama’s choice for Secretary of State has made the most news of all his choices.  That’s because he chose his primary opponent, Senator Hillary Clinton, to be his Secretary of State.  This choice made headlines for more than just Hillary being a primary challenger.  It made headlines because she is considered to have more “hawkish” views when it comes to our nations foreign policy.

But before we really delve into the choice of Hillary Clinton, we need to understand the role and the duties of the Secretary of State.

If you’ve been following the beginnings of the transition of leadership from George W. Bush to Barack Obama, you’ve probably heard about a lot of things that President-Elect Obama wants to change from our current leadership to his.  That shouldn’t be a big surprise as that was pretty much his campaign platform.

As you may or may not know, however, is that for real substantive change to occur, it takes a lot of time for legislation to change economic policy, social agendas and domestic and international policy as it has to go through the House and Senate first before it even gets to the President’s desk for his signature.  And if you’re familiar with the old Saturday morning cartoon song, the Schoolhouse Rock’s “I’m Just a Bill” you might just recall how long that takes.

But what most may not realize, is that there is a way around Congress that a President can use to exercise his authority.  And that’s through the use of Executive Orders.  Executive Orders are typically used to “impose policy and set priorities”, so says Breitbart.com in an article on the transition process between Presidents.

To get the full flavor of how Executive Orders work and how they’ve been used (and manipulated) we need to look at their past.