Obama Cabinet Choices So Far — Grade A-

The past week has allowed us to glimpse the outlines of the new Obama administration at least personality wise with policy implications therein by the people either announced or heavily leaked as cabinet choices and so far for this conservative the choices have been, for the most part, outstanding so let’s take a look at these people and what they tell us on how the new administration will approach the big problems facing this country and the world in the coming year.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner

The choice of Geithner emerged after much speculation involving such former Clinton administration officials as former Harvard president and Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, Citicorp executive and former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin and former Fed chairman Paul Volcker. Geithner, as head of the New York Federal Reserve, has been heavily involved with the current infusion of capital into the nation’s ailing financial firms engineered by Hank Paulson and by choosing the youthful Geithner Obama is signaling a continuity at Treasury that should be reassuring to equities markets whose volatility is likely to continue as the nation and world sinks deeper into recession. What isn’t clear is the extent to which the nation will need even more than the $350 billion left in the TARP program and to what extent that capital infusion will go into areas of the economy outside the financial institutions, i.e., the failing Big 3 automakers. Obama is signaling that he will be going beyond this $700 billion infusion but has given no indication that he will allow the Big 3 to tap into it without accompanying structural changes that will require them to shed jobs and a business model that is antiquated and no longer competitive. Last week’s torpedoing by Nancy Pelosi and House liberals of the Levin-Voinovich plan to allow the Big 3 to use the $25 billion already allocated to them for “green” investment in vehicles to serve instead as a bridge loan to stem the cash bleed out suggests that they might put up a fight with the new administration over what in essence must be a pre-packaged bankruptcy proceeding for the Big 3 with the treasury serving as the provider of “debtor in possession” financing. My guess is that President Obama will get his way and get the support of Pelosi and company for his plan by offering a sweetened package of unemployment and job retraining benefits for displaced autoworkers.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton

Although the selection of Senator Clinton isn’t yet a done deal and much work still needs to be done to disentangle former President Bill Clinton’s global foundation’s fundraising in a fashion that will remove the suspicion that Senator Clinton as Secretary of State will be granting based on foreign donations to it, this should not prove an insurmountable task and Senator Clinton would be confirmed by the Senate without much opposition. This is a good move for the country, for Senator Obama and for Senator Clinton. For the country it offers the prospect of a savvy and respected woman internationally whose policy postions regarding the war in Iraq and Afghanistan have been responsible since day one and sometimes at odds with her then political opponent Barack Obama. Her choice is reassuring to conservative like me who were worried that Senator Obama might not follow through with his pledge to remain committed internationally in Iraq and Afghanistan and instead heed voices in his party who would have the United States “come home” with likely disastrous consequences.

Secretary of Defense Bob Gates

After some initial speculation that Bob Gates wasn’t keen on remaining as Secretary of Defense even for awhile in the new administration that talk appears to have subsided and the inside thinking is that he will stay on and President Obama will welcome his steady leadership of the Department of Defense after the disastrous Rumsfeld reign at the Pentagon. While some on his party’s left have not forgiven Bob Gates for his alleged role in Iran-contra a generation ago, Gates has provided much-needed new thinking, in tandem with Centcom commander Gen. David Petraeus, regarding inter-agency cooperation and the nexus between “soft” and “hard” power in the ongoing intractable problem of Afghanistan.

National Security Adviser James Jones

Another leaked name who appears likely to be Obama’s choice, retired Marine Lt. General Jones also brings steady, bipartisan credentials to this all-important post both as former head of the Marine Corps, former SACEUR Nato and as the Bush administration’s point man on Middle East security through the Department of State. Along with Secretary of State Clinton and Defense Secretary Gates, General Jones will be asked to cajole more NATO support from reluctant European allies for the effort in Afghanistan which President-elect Obama has promised to redouble.

NOTE: Possible odd man out with respect to the three choices above: Vice President-elect Joe Biden who I feel certain thought (and may still) he would be the primary mover and shaker of the Obama foreign and defense policy agenda.

Attorney General Eric Holder

Another Clinton administration figure who served as deputy AG under Janet Reno the only questions regarding Holder would lie in his signing off on the Clinton pardons including Marc Rich but again, as this is a president’s absolute prerogative, I would not expect much pushback from the GOP. Although Holder is on the record as opposing many of the provisions of the Patriot Act and the new FISA statute, President Obama will call the shots here and he has already signaled that there will probably be no great repeal of these laws nor will there be any political witch hunts of former Bush administration officials. A little known fact about Holder is that he was appointed to the DC Superior Court bench by Ronald Reagan and as a career prosecutor at Justice led the prosecution on corruption charges of former Democratic House member John Jenrette whose wife Rita is fondly remembered by some of us here in Washington for obvious reasons.

Commerce Secretary Bill Richardson

Commerce is an unimportant cabinet position and the department could probably be eliminated with no great harm to the country and Richardson, of whom I am not a fan had he been the choice for Secretary of State, is a safe choice here.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Daschle

The weakest of Obama’s selections from my viewpoint, Daschle is a partisan Democrat whose wife, Linda Hall Daschle, is a prominent Washington lobbyist for a variety of interests including Boeing, Lockheed Martin and other airline related industries. But at HHS Daschle will be unable to exert his influence to appeal for federal pork for the farm states as he did as Senate Majority Leader the result of which was the disastrous Farm Bill of 2002. In choosing him for HHS Obama is giving a nod to the liberal wing of his party which needs something to take away from this process.

DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano

Another good choice for Obama in picking a red state Democratic governor who has had to balance the issue of immigration as governor of Arizona. The only fly in the ointment confirmation-wise for Governor Napolitano is her role in the Clarence Thomas confirmation process nearly twenty years ago when she was an adviser to Thomas’s accuser Anita Hill. I would not, however, expect the GOP to pick a fight on this.

A number of other key positions like CIA director, Director of National Intelligence, Labor Secretary, EPA administrator and Ambassador to the UN remain to be filled but for this conservative, President-elect Obama’s choices so far seem quite reassuring.

~cross-posted at Newsvine