Digby has a post up about a flowchart (of questionable origin) describing the possibles at various cabinet levels.
She seems to think that the Powell listing as a possible at Defense and State is a joke, I, again, fall back on the political favors argument. Powell endorsed Obama at a time when the race seemed to be tightening, his name on the list might be payback enough. Or Obama could be signaling to moderate GOP members that if they play ball with him, he'll play it back.
On a related note, I was telling Ging about my post defending Obama's consideration of Summers and other neoliberal, corporatist swine and the trouble, if only imaginary, it caused me. I, of course, had to explain who Summers is. She immediately became outraged that Obama would consider appointing a sexist to anything and said that she wanted to retract her vote. My explanation that no one was particularly upset about Summers "sexism" did not help. My explanation that the reaction the "science and math" speech was less about sexism as it was that Summers relied on a biological determinist argument in a socially constructed world did not help.
I now join you all in fervently hoping that Summers ain't appointed to shit.
Hopefully seeing RFK, Jr.'s name at EPA and Al Gore as Climate Czar might cool her fire. And that's politics!
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
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4 comments:
You do know that RFK Jr. is fairly unpopular among the scientist crowd for his belief that autism is caused by vaccinations, no? There's plenty of interest-group bones to pick for the next 10 weeks! I'll only carp on the most egregious, I promise.
I'd be pretty happy with Powell as Secretary of Defense, as far as that goes. I think Obama's focus should and will be on identifying competent managers to fix the damage that Bush has done.
I'm with wobblie on the RFK, Jr. bit. God knows the last thing we need is another secretary that puts conviction ahead of evidence. Speaking of which, Summers not only made biologically determinist arguments, he misquoted other scholars doing so...
I'm surprised Granholm didn't make the list for anything. Not that I'm complaining...
And either Gephardt or Bonior would be good for Labor.
Greenwald had this regarding Brennan as possible Homeland Security Sec.:
" Obama's transition chief for intelligence policy, John Brennan, was an ardent supporter of torture and one of the most emphatic advocates of FISA expansions and telecom immunity. It would be foolish in the extreme to ignore that and to just adopt the attitude that we should all wait quietly with our hands politely folded for the new President to unveil his decisions before deciding that we should speak up or do anything.
Politicians respond to constituencies and pressure. Constituencies which announce their intention to maintain respectful silence all but ensure that their political principles will be ignored."
link
regarding RFK jr.: since when does being a kook on a scientific question disqualify you for a cabinet position? Ashcroft, Gonzales, Kempthorne, Steve Johnson...that is just off the top of my head.
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