Fantasy U.S. Cabinet?
Shame somebody hasn’t put together a ‘fantasy U.S. Cabinet’ game. I’d really like to see:
Secretary of Defense: Wesley Clark
Secretary of Interior: Bill Richardson
Secretary of Health & Human Services: Howard Dean
Lots of other positions, including Treasury, Attorney General (Damn you, Spitzer!), Agriculture, Commerce, Labor, HUD, Transportation, Energy, Education, Veteran’s Affairs.
I’d just abolish the misbegotten “Homeland Security.” Or at least give it a non-Nazi name, like “National Security” or something. Nah, better just get rid of all those fuckers and any money we are wasting there.
What do all of youse think?
Stumble it!
Tags: Obama, Obama Administration, U.S. Cabinet
November 6th, 2008 at 9:42 pm
As a Vermont resident active on disability rights for many years, the thought of Dean as Secretary of Health & Human Services makes my skin crawl. His merits as a campaign strategist don’t justify appointing him to such a role.
Dean’s disregard for the most marginalized and disenfranchised Vermonters was evident in the abysmal state of health care in Vermont’s prisons and in conditions at our state hospital — which was decertified by CMS while he was aiming at the Presidency. As Governor, Dean also heavily promoted legislation to gut the medical self determination of people with psychiatric disabilities.
If it helps convey what was tolerated here: one institutionalized practice at the state hospital was to lock all the patients on one ward in their rooms overnight, every night, while claiming this was not seclusion (which would have been prohibited by federal regulations). Only half of those rooms had bathrooms; the rest were equipped with slop jars.
Dean attacked the rights of defendants as “technicalities.” He did his best to block a federal grant providing funds for representing developmentally disabled defendants — and then fired our Attorney General for successfully lobbying the legislature to get the money restored.
By all means eliminate Homeland Security. But don’t mistake Howard Dean for any kind of progressive.
November 7th, 2008 at 7:49 am
Interesting, elbowroom! Well there should be a post somewhere for the guy. Did he do anything that you liked in Vermont?
November 7th, 2008 at 8:52 am
Dean should stay where he is. He’s done a fantastic job running DNC and rolling out the 50-state strategy. This election was a total vindication of that approach. I’m guessing there’s going to be even more of that push needed in the next 4-8 years.
Here’s my fantasy cabinet:
- State: David Holbrooke.
- Defense: Tough one. Colin Powell, Jim Webb, or Chuck Hagel would all be OK.
- Treasury: Laura D’Andrea Tyson or Jon Corzine (except that I don’t think it should be someone recently associated with Wall Street).
- Energy: Al Gore or Robert F. Kennedy. Go for broke, I say!
- Attorney General: Jim Comey.
- Homeland Security: Bill Richardson (i.e. in charge of Immigration), if only so we can see winger heads exploding at the thought of a Hispanic in charge of Immigration
- Veteran’s Affairs: Jim Webb. No question he should be offered.
- Interior: Brian Schweitzer.
- Health & Human Services: Hillary Clinton (and given the brief to get universal healthcare reform done). OK, that won’t happen, so I’ll go with a wildcard: Colin Powell.
- Commerce: Eric Schmidt.
- Education: Janet Napolitano.
- Agriculture: Fantasy: Michael Pollan. Reality: Tom Vilsack (former Gov. Iowa) — although he may be too connected to Agribusiness.
- I also think he should create a cabinet-level post in charge of overseeing technology and setting policy. It’s too important a role to have it be so disbursed.
November 7th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Fubar, you may create cute ‘n funny posts, but in your chest beats the heart of a wonk. I like the Al Gore Energy thing. Surprised you don’t like the Wesley Clark suggestion for Defense. I’d like to see Hillary stay in the Senate, or potentially replace Ruth Ginsburg in the SCOTUS (that would be politically astute, drive the wingers nuts and keep her out of his hair in 2012).
Isn’t Eric Schmidt one of those nutso Libertarians?
I’d want to keep Powell away from the WH, he blew all his cred in the Shrubya misadministration. He carries the stench of decay about him.
November 7th, 2008 at 10:00 am
He signed civil unions into law…
November 8th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Paul O’Neil for Treasury Sec. A Republican who fell out with Bush way before anyone else…but most importantly, when he ran Alcoa, he went around the world talking about how important it was to deal with Climate Change, despite the fact that the aluminum industry is an enormous user of energy (Aluminum is nicknamed “solid electricity”)…. as Treaury Sec. he’ll understand the need for incentives and federal dollars to deal with this.