Rotisserie League Cabinet
It’s too late now, of course, since Obama has already designated most of his Cabinet choices. Some of them are fine, some are OK, and some are unknown. But the Cabinet should be a source of pressure against the inevitable tendencies toward centrism and accommodation. It wouldn’t be a bad idea for progressives in Congress to set up a shadow Cabinet to point-guard every member of the real Cabinet (and other agencies) and blow the whistle when good things aren’t being done. Here are my nominees — blanks indicate positions for which I’m still open to suggestion:
State Dept.: Nicholas Kristof, the NYTimes columnist whose annoying persistence has kept a world focus on the disastrous events in Darfur.
Treasury Dept.: Paul Krugman
Defense Dept.: Sen. James Webb, former Secretary of the Navy
Justice Dept.: David Cole, who has surveyed the panoply of legal abuses in the Bush administration and knows where the problems are.
Interior Dept.:
Commerce Dept.:
Labor Dept.: Thomas Geoghegan, longtime labor lawyer who is now running to succeed Rahm Emanuel in Congress.
Health and Human Services:
Housing and Urban Development: Dennis Kucinich, who knows how real people live their lives and has executive experience as mayor of Cleveland.
Transportation:
Securities and Exchange Commission: Harry Markopolos, the investment professional whose documented warnings about Bernie Madoff were ignored, probably because the SEC staff couldn’t understand the math.
Surgeon General: Joycelyn Elders, the former Surgeon General that Bill Clinton had to throw under the bus because she advocated birth control for teenagers and admitted knowing something about sex.
