Various updates regarding President Obama's Cabinet appointments:
Yesterday, the Senate confirmed Eric Holder's nomination for attorney general. All 21 "nay" votes came from Republicans. Their party was almost evenly split, and that split was very much along ideological lines, with those closer to the center supporting the nomination.
In this post, I underestimated the degree of bipartisanship in the Obama Cabinet. In addition to retaining Robert Gates as secretary of defense, Obama appointed Republican Ray LaHood to be secretary of transportation.
Now, the president has appointed a third Republican, Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. Gregg is the nominee for secretary of commerce, a position that has remained open because Obama's original choice, Governor Bill Richardson, Democrat of New Mexico, backed out.
All of that does not change the opinion I expressed earlier, that Republicans should stick with forming the loyal opposition to the Obama Administration, the better to be able to offer an alternative to the electorate in 2010 and 2012.
And some more breaking news: former Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle has asked that his nomination to be secretary of health and human services be withdrawn. That nomination had been stalled over personal tax issues.
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1 comment:
Pity about Mr. Daschle.
I had suspected that it was Mr. Obama's plan to mitigate the cost of the Stimulus plan by getting rich Dems to pay their taxes en-route their Cabinet posts.
Apparently that strategy is not working.
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