In one of those articles that will either be highly prescient and informative, or totally irrelevant in a week, Carl Cameron looks at who might be in Kerry's cabinet. (Laura Rozen has fewer copyright concerns about copying 90% of the thing).
What struck me as crazy was the idea that Kerry would cherry-pick Democratic Senators for his cabinet. As I said way back in April if Kerry wins he'll really need a friendly Senate to get anything done, especially if Republicans still have a majority in the House (this does not preclude Kerry managing to detach Republicans from the DeLay machine to support his legislation).
Many senior or able Democratic Senators represent states with Republican governors (New York, California etc.). On the flip side, Kerry could do a lot worse than to appoint Republican Senators from Democratic governed states to his Cabinet. Consider that Maine, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Virginia have Democratic governors, and that Collins, Snowe, Warner, Specter or McCain would be moderate Republican candidates for a cabinet position. The Democrats would then pick up a Senate seat.
Do that too much, and it looks cynical. But the Republicans would have a hard time arguing against it, since it would be truly bipartisan.
As for appointing current Democratic governors to cabinet positions. In states where the Democrats have a deep bench (Michigan) this is OK. But in states where the current governor has a vital role to play in making the Democratic party competitive again in that state (Arizona), a hypothetical President Kerry should be mindful of keeping the local party strong.
As for Minnesota ... any President that appointed Pawlenty to a cabinet post would fate us to being led by Carol Molnau. Let's just hope Pawlenty doesn't get a phone call from Washington shortly after the election ...
Posted by robe0419 at October 26, 2004 4:12 PM