Obama Pledges to Appoint Republican to Cabinet

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

In a wide-ranging interview that will air Sunday night on the CBS program, “60 Minutes,” President-elect Barack Obama said he would choose at least one Republican for a position in his cabinet but declined to hint at who he had in mind.

“Will there be Republicans?” asked Steve Kroft, the “60 Minutes” interviewer. “Yes,” Mr. Obama replied. But when pressed, the president-elect would not name the G.O.P. leaders he is considering nor did he tip his cards about which cabinet office he saw as a good fit for a member of the opposing party.

Mr. Obama, however, seemed receptive to the idea of surrounding himself with a so-called “team of rivals” — a notion that has taken on greater significance as speculation swirls about whether he would possibly pick Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton to be his secretary of state.

If he did choose such a group for his cabinet, Mr. Obama would be following in the footsteps of another Illinois politician who ascended to the presidency, Abraham Lincoln. In the interview, Mr. Obama, who has been reading about the Lincoln White House, suggested he had an affinity for 16th president’s approach.

“There is a wisdom there and a humility about his approach to government, even before he was president, that I just find very helpful,” Mr. Obama said. When asked whether Mr. Obama planned to put “political enemies” in his cabinet, the president-elect demurred. “Well, I tell you what,” Mr. Obama replied, “I find him a very wise man,” he said of Lincoln....

Read more: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/11/15/obama-pledges-to-appoint-republican-to-cabinet/

[Captain Hilts]

1. Just leave Gates where he is. nt

[tekisui]

2. That is probably it.

Let him stay on, get the new leadership in tact and he can be replaced sometime in the future.

[aejlaw]

18. I agree. Let the Republicans share in the abuse from

Rush and company for the withdrawl from Iraq and Afganistan.

[DJ13]

3. Read this morning it might be either Hagel or Chafee

[peacebird]

4. Hagel would be a very good choice.

I don't know enough about Chafee.

[hangman86]

8. What's wrong with Chafee?

Pro-environment, against the Iraq War, pro-choice, anti-death penalty, supports stem-cell research, supports gay marriage!

Unless your saying that he's too liberal to please Republicans and therefore would harm chances for unity. I could see that.

[hack89]

27. He is an idiot - that's what's wrong with him

his father was a great man and a great senator for Rhode Island. Linc is not - he is a genuine flake - his idiosyncrasies are well known here.

[KittyWampus]

10. Chafee was truly a RINO. He stayed in that party out of respect for his father.

[Captain Hilts]

22. If he had switched, he'd still be in the senate today. But Whitehouse was a real find. nt

[acmavm]

11. Hagel would be good? In what position? Because on every damn subject

EXCEPT the Iraq war, Hagel is as republican/conservative as they come. Remember the vote on health insurance for poor kids? He voted against it. That is representative of his record. Except, as I said, the war.

[progressoid]

42. Exactly. He's not as desirable as people here seem to think.

[goforit]

25. Well, both would be great.

[Zorra]

31. Didn't Hagel miraculously win his Senate seat after his company's electronic

voting machines threw the election to him?

ES&S, wasn't it?

[Zhade]

33. YES.

NT!

[undeterred]

35. How does Obama not know this?

[cascadiance]

44. I still like having Hagel as Secretary of Defense and Dennis Kucinich as Secretary of Peace...

with newer department that has been long sought after. That would give a balanced set of opinions and ideas on any potential conflicts that might come up, so that both progressives and Republicans feel they are being heard, and by having folks from both sides of the aisle there, that the "books wouldn't be cooked" like Bush did in engineering war efforts in Iraq and other places.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

5. Hagel was my first thought.

Hagel is a common sense guy. I really like him.
Duckie

[scytherius]

6. Hagel would be good . . . with the added benefit of making Freeper heads explode n/t

nt

[davhill]

7. I thought Chafee was jumping to the Democrats? NT

[Captain Hilts]

21. Chafee doesn't count. Republicans have always thought he was a RINO nt

[progressoid]

43. Good. That's as much of a Republican as we need in there. Nor more. eom.

[DUlover2909]

9. I hope he creates a new Department of Stupidity and gives it to Rush Limbaugh.

[jamesinca]

12. Pull Snowe out of Maine

Tip the Senate further Democratic and leave nothing but far right extremist in the GOP senate caucus, making them looking even less appealing to America.

In a less partisan, in your face, smash mouth type move put Hagel in. Replace Gates with Wesley Clark!!!

[awoke_in_2003]

16. Wes hasn't been retired long enough

to be SecDef

[Captain Hilts]

23. Yes, make Snowe CIA director or Sec. Defense. She must hate life in the senate these days...nt

[True_Blue]

13. Maybe Colin Powell

I think it's Powell.

[jrockford]

19. I fucking hope not. nt

[Zhade]

34. I second that. No criminals who lied to the U.N. to help launch an illegal war, thanks!

NT!

[shanti]

14. yeah, lieberman

heh...

[DetlefK]

15. BRILLIANT MOVE! He can give Lieberman the foot and Lieberman can't whine about partisan politics!

[olddad56]

32. Make Lieberman the ambassador to Alabama,

[RedCloud]

17. It's for Secretary of the Inferior.

NM

[skyounkin]

20. I appoint a rethug as a

footstool.

They deserve nothing else.

[Faygo Kid]

24. Lincoln.

We are about to see the greatest president of my lifetime.

And I was born during the Truman administration.

[Neshanic]

26. What a person to be named later of a certain group? Sounds sketchy.

Make sure the gay thing is vetted.

[bread_and_roses]

28. unbelievable. posters here cheering for Hagel, for Powell...

how soon we forget the last eight years, evidently. I hope Powell wakes up screaming every night with his nightmares of dead Iraqi children.

[Neshanic]

37. Sickening actually.

[skepticscott]

29. How about a Republican

for Secretary of Agriculture? They're pretty good at spreading manure...

But definitely NOT in Defense, Justice or State. Those departments are cesspools of Bush Administration corruption and need to be sanitized completely. That will never happen with a Republican still in charge. There are many career employees in those departments who have been reluctant to speak out about all of the wrongdoing that's gone on in the last 8 years for fear of having their careers, lives and families ruined by Bush and his bullies in the right wing smear machine. If Gates stays as SOD or if other Repugs are put in charge of State or Justice, the whole truth about what went on will NEVER be known.

[Zorra]

30. Why? A goodwill gesture? Olive branches mean nothing to republicans.

Why reward members of a party that tried to destroy the country.

What was the republican percentage of the electorate that voted for Obama?

Lots of good Democrats deserve that cabinet post, and would be better at it than any republican.

[VP505]

38. I can agree with that but I

also see what Obama is trying to accomplish, unfortunately when he extends his hand across the isle he'll likely withdraw a bloody stump. However that might not sound as bad as it seems, the more the Republickers stick to their crappy ways the more people they will turn against them.

[ima_sinnic]

36. what the hell for? i thought Cabinet positions were not "rewards" or to achieve a "balance"

This announcement just makes me feel apathetic and apolitical. I want to be engaged, but not if republiCONs are going to be around. They are stupid no-mind warmonger traitorous perverted greedheads who should be ostracized, not rewarded with Cabinet positions. I really REALLY do NOT believe that some republiCON is the very best person for any Cabinet position in Obama's administration.

SCREW "BIPARTISAN" BULLSHIT.

[WoodyM]

39. The Republican Party

has its ideas as to policies and how this country should be run. The Democrats have their ideas as to policies and this country should be run. They do not join in with each other, they are more likely to be almost the very opposite. Here in South Carolina, I voted for Obama and get looks from my neighbors. I voted democrat with the expectation that democrat policies would at least attempted to be enacted and not watered down with some attempt to include some republican in the name of bipartisanship. I certainly did not vote to include republicans in the cabinet in a so-called bipartisanship.

[KillCapitalism]

40. Sarah Palin

For secretary of state b/c she can see Russia from her backyard.














I'm only kidding you guys! :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[whatdoyouthink]

41. I think its a good idea

to add one! Way of saying - see I included them...Plus still 40% out there you have to deal with (hard core 30% - but 10% got to bring along) in some way... Un-like Bush - even after eating all the meat, did not even give us a bone...Obama will be much nicer to them, then they were to US.

[bvar22]

45. I would prefer to hear him pledge to appoint....

...a Liberal Democrat.
We are people too.