Horse Association Commissioners Need Not Apply

Not a donor, not a party apparatchik, not even a Democrat! President Obama selected a FEMA Director that's an actual qualified, experienced manager of a major emergency response agency...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to name Florida's state emergency director Craig Fugate to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency, an official familiar with the appointment said Wednesday.

Fugate has served as director of Florida's Division of Emergency Management since 2001, when he was tapped by former Gov. Jeb Bush. He was retained by current Gov. Charlie Crist. Both governors are Republicans.

Fugate previously served as the agency's assistant director for nearly five years. Fugate has been praised for his efforts steering Florida through numerous hurricanes in the past decade.

With rare exception, Obama's appointments have been people who are arguably the best-qualified person for the job, regardless of almost anything else. I could get used to this...

Grade AA

Nobody was less happy about Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack than me. The best-case scenario I could spin at the time is that Vilsack is the skilled and connect administrator that could get shit done, and he'd surround himself with the right people.

He is.

Vilsack announced his choice for Deputy at the Department of Agriculture—Tufts professor and organic activist Kathleen Merrigan.

[...] as a senate staffer for Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, Merrigan had drafted the organic law. She then went on to work at the USDA's agricultural marketing service (AMS), which runs the organic program. Even before then, she was involved in sustainable agriculture policy and has been ever since -- in organics, conservation, food access, and small farm issues.

[...] Outside government, she has worked for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, served on a the Pew commission on biotechnology and has been active in the National Campaign for Sustainable Agriculture. She now heads the Agriculture, Food and Environment Program at Tufts School of Nutrition and Policy. As marketing and regulatory undersecretary, she would oversee AMS, GIPSA (Grain Inspection Packers and Stockyards Administration), and APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) - touching virtually every aspect of agriculture.

In short, this is a real shot for a major position at the USDA by someone who has pursued the change mantra in agriculture for nearly two decades.

Here's an even better endorsement:

Merrigan is a right-wing nightmare come true, an unreconstructed liberal activist in charge of a billion-dollar bureaucracy. In her last job, at the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture, she helped organize a massive grass-roots campaign to scuttle the U.S. Department of Agriculture's modest proposed standards for organic food. In her new job, running the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), she's rewriting that very proposal.

All of that is awesome to read...especially when you try to imagine the same post being filled in the Bush (or even McCain) Administration—would that candidate be an executive from Cargill, Ortho or Monsanto...?

[h/t Ezra]

Howard's In?

With Tom Daschle officially humiliated into withdrawing his nomination for Secretary of Health and Human Services, I hope the following sentence is overheard in the Oval Office...

"Somebody get me Howard Dean on the phone."

Accounting 101

Ezra just nails the Daschle / Geithner tax fiascoes for what they really are:

I don't think it plausible that guys with the fortunes of Tom Daschle and Tim Geithner and the ambitions of Tom Daschle and Tim Geithner sat down one night and decided to crudely defraud the government of somewhere between $40,000 and $130,000 in tax revenues at the potential cost of their future Senate confirmations. Indeed, I doubt that they spend a lot of time on their taxes at all (though Geithner apparently keeps records in Turbotax). Both have enormously complex income streams with various employers, consulting gigs, speaking fees, and who knows what else. Maybe, in Japan, Geithner endorses cereal. For that reason, both have said that they use accountants. But from afar, it sort of looks like their accountants are doing the thing where they help their clients pay the least money rather than the thing where they shore up their future political viability. What affluent future political appointees need is not accountants who eke out some savings but auditors who make sure they pay something close to the maximum. As the saying goes, the question isn't whether they can afford to do that. As we're seeing, it's whether they can afford not to.

I'm still not ready to give these jackasses a pass. Especially Daschle, who as a former Senate Majority Leader should be a savvy enough politician to make sure this shit is straight. Accountant or no, it's your return and your responsibility.

If you are still an active politico (even post-office) with the potential to be appointed to a cabinet post (or a judicial slot, etc.) you should keep your ass clean. Period. That means no affairs, no tax crap and no undocumented housekeepers. It might not be directly relevant to your future appointment, but it's sloppy and shows poor judgement—and you deserve to be called on it—if not disqualified for it.

--

UPDATE: This is fucking awesome*. You can't stop YouTube, you can only hope to contain it...



*For those not following this stuff closely, Daschle is in hot water for failing to pay taxes on $255,000 worth of being driven around in a private car paid for by someone else.

Cabinet Refacing

President-Elect Obama has filled out his Cabinet, and there are surely a couple of posts there worth second-guessing, if not outright complaint-worthy. But only as a matter of policy, idealogy, or the fact that I don't like them—but, at this point I'm trusting they'll be following Obama's lead.

What I DON'T want to hear anyone bitching about is who didn't get picked for some stupid-ass demographic reason...

NOT BLACK ENOUGH
The Congressional Black Caucus is bent out of shape because apparently Obama's Cabinet doesn't closely resemble the S1Ws enough...

Black lawmakers irked by Obama’s diverse Cabinet

Some members of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) are disappointed President-elect Obama did not appoint more African-Americans to his Cabinet.

Obama tapped four blacks for Cabinet posts, including Eric Holder. If confirmed, Holder will be the first African-American attorney general.

But Obama passed over black candidates in selecting Cabinet nominees for positions central to setting policy for urban America, such as the departments of Education, Labor, and Housing and Urban Development.

[...]“On balance, I’d say a great deal of thought went into the shaping of this Cabinet,” Davis told The Hill. “And he ended up with a real rainbow. But some people, sure, thought there should be a bit more color in it.”

Another senior member of the CBC who requested anonymity said more pointedly that Obama “isn’t doing enough for the black folks.”

As dumb as that is, THIS one is even worse...

NOT SOUTHERN ENOUGH
Yeah. Twenty straight years of Southern Presidents surrounded by other Southerners and these fucking rednecks are bitching about what?

Southerners are the missing group in Obama's Cabinet
By Jim Morrill | Charlotte Observer

There are Democrats and Republicans, liberals and moderates, Hispanics and Asians, whites and blacks, Northerners and Westerners.

But one group arguably was missing when President-elect Barack Obama rounded out his 15-member Cabinet Friday — Southerners.

[...] "Obama scored a tremendous advance for Democrats in winning the three large Southern states and ignored them," says Larry Sabato, director of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. "I'm just stunned. It was the one grouping completely ignored."

[...] "There really ought to be one (cabinet post) from each state," says Sabato. "These are three really big prizes, and they're tenuous. None of these states is guaranteed for a Democrat in the future."

There's more:

The disparity isn't an accident -- critics already are calling it a snub -- and that perception could slow the pace of recent electoral gains Democrats have made below the Mason-Dixon line.

"Southerners need not apply," said Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga. "It's hard to believe that there wasn't anybody qualified for something from the South." [...]

Dan Carter, a political historian at the University of South Carolina, said the shortage of Southerners among top White House aides is highly unusual and could invite criticism.

Um...Fuck You? Seriously. Perhaps the fact that Obama is picking qualified, knowledgable people to man the posts eliminated all the yokels at the door? But that's not really even true. Obama's got people from Texas, North Carolina, D.C., Florida plus Arizona and New Mexico. I guess not all of them are the "right kind" of Southerner...

Go read the whole AP piece, it's filled to the rim with stupid.

The best thing I saw on this? From the comments at Benen's:

Fine, fine, three new cabinet posts for the south then. Here are my suggestions;

Secretary of Tobacco
Secretary of NASCAR
Secretary of Obnoxious Whiners

Will that make them happy?

For the record, Obama’s Cabinet has 11 whites, four blacks, three Hispanics and two Asian Americans. Several are women, and one is the first openly gay cabinet-level appointee. It's a diverse—yet extremely qualified—group by almost any measure, so haters can sit back and drink up...

Quick Hits

Its been a hellish week at work so I've hardly even had time to read anything online, never mind write anything...but here are some wuick thoughts about some things I've seen flash past my eyes of late:

• Caroline Kennedy has no business getting appointed to Hillary's Senate seat, and the thought of it happening fucking pisses me off.

• Barack Obama's selection / allowing / or even tolerating Rick Warren's participation at his Inauguration is terrible. I don't EVER support elevating the platform of asshats like Warren, but especially not in the wake of Proposition 8 and Warren's role in passing it. I understand Obama's call for unity and a desire to represent diveristy of viewpoint, but fairness dictates a like desire from the opponent. Warren is an intolerant asshole and has no intention of advancing a discussion on gay rights, controception, abortion or anything else. He cares only to advance his agenda. Obama's ceremony should not serve it.

• As bad as Warren is, at least he won't be delivering policy. Tom Vilsack will. I was against this guy a month ago, and nothing I've seen changes my opinion that this guy is a bad pick. Period. The best one can hope for is an aggressive Ag policy by Obama and that Vilsack is merely the best player to advance the ball. If that's the case, Vilsack needs to shut his cornhole in the huddle.

• I've completely lost track of the auto industry stuff.

Stocking the Cabinet

I'm not generally in favor of poaching the current Democratic team for Administration players, but I can get behind this move:

A transition official for President-elect Barack Obama says Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar will be named Interior Secretary later this week.

[...] Salazar is a first-term Colorado Senator who has established a name for himself on public lands and energy resources issues. He headed the Colorado Natural Resources Department from 1990 through 1994. The Interior Department has broad oversight over the nation's energy resources and environment. It oversees oil and gas drilling on public lands and manages the nation's parks and wildlife refuges.

I don't know anything about Salazar's record as an environmentalist, but I trust the Obama team's judgement there...I DO KNOW he fucking sucks as a Democratic Senator—so this is win-win as far as I'm concerned.