Filibuster Cartoons
 |
|
 |
Entering his second month in office, President Obama has been having an unexpectedly hard time getting his cabinet together. First New Mexico governor Bill Richardson had to withdraw his nomination as commerce secretary after it was revealed that he was subject to a federal investigation relating to an alleged kickback scheme. Obama’s second choice was Republican senator Judd Gregg, but he withdrew as well last week, basically saying he was too ideologically opposed to the president’s economic agenda to serve.
Tom Daschle was supposed to serve as secretary of health, but he too stepped aside after it came to be known that he had been engaged in a fair bit of federal tax evasion. Treasury secretary Timothy Geithner nearly had his bid turfed as well, for similar reasons.
Then there’s Hilda Solis, who Obama wanted to be secretary of labor. Her approval has been grinding along very slowly, however, due to lingering controversies about her ties to Big Labour, and her supposed recent history as a union lobbyist.
The biggest irony is that most of these cabinet controversies have been arising precisely because Mr. “change we can believe in” has been selecting such decidedly old-hand Washington insiders for his administration’s top jobs. Old faces bring their old baggage. Didn’t that used to be the argument against making Hillary Clinton president?
