Pick Your Dream Cabinet: Any Democratic President

[tsipple]

There's some great talent available to the next Democratic president, so I thought it would be fun for DUers to choose the next cabinet. There are some rules, though: (1) your cabinet must "look like America," per the well-articulated Clinton standard; (2) your cabinet must not be biased toward a particular (declared) Democratic presidential candidate -- if you name that candidate to the cabinet, name an alternate as well in case he/she wins the nomination; (3) a mini-bio of your cabinet choice would be helpful where appropriate.

OK, here's a start.

Secretary of Agriculture: Bennie Thompson (Congressman, Mississippi, Agriculture Committee)
Secretary of Commerce: Ann Richards (fmr. Gov. Texas) or Vernon Jordan
Secretary of Defense: Wesley Clark
Secretary of Education: Paul Vallas (fmr. Chicago Schools Superintendent)
Secretary of Energy: Gray Davis
Secretary of Health and Human Services: Elizabeth Birch (Human Rights Campaign leader)
Secretary of Homeland Security: Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez (Chair, Congressional Hispanic Caucus)
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: Carole Moseley-Braun or Rosalyn Carter
Secretary of the Interior: Gary Locke (Gov. Washington state)
Attorney General: Joe Biden
Secretary of Labor: Richard Gephardt or Dennis Kucinich
Secretary of State: Al Gore
Secretary of Transportation: Michael Dukakis (fmr. head of Amtrak)
Secretary of Treasury: Laura D'Andrea Tyson
Secretary of Veterans Affairs: Max Cleland

You can also add picks for other top posts. Here are some examples:

U.S. Trade Representative, Head of EPA, FAA Administrator, Chief of Staff, Press Secretary (Nancy Skinner my pick there if she doesn't win the Illinois Senate), NASA Administrator, SEC Chairman, Office of National Drug Control Policy ("Drug Czar"), Director of the FBI (when vacant), Federal Reserve Board Chairman (when vacant), Supreme Court Justice (when vacant), Head of OSHA, FCC Commissioners (when vacant), Head of National Security Council, Head of OMB, Chairman of Joint Chiefs (when vacant), EEOC Chair, Head of the National Park Service, Chair of President's Council of Economic Advisors, Secretaries of Army, Navy, etc., ambassadorships, FEC Commissioners (when vacant), FTC Chair, etc. (Jan Schakowsky would be awesome has head of the Federal Trade Commission, for example.) Also, which Republicans would you put into any of these positions? (Yes, you can cheat a little. Lowell Wicker, for example, would qualify.)

[Name removed]

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[liberalpragmatist]

2. My picks:

I've actually already posted these choices in politics/campaigns. I list multiple possibilities for some, and I don't list for all, b/c I don't always know whose qualified for what.

President: John F. Kerry (JFK)
Vice President: Wesley Clark or John Edwards

State: Richard Holbroke, Andrew Young, Gary Hart, Al Gore, Bill Richardson, Wesley Clark (if not VP)
Defense: Eric Shinseki, Wesley Clark
Attorney General: John Edwards (if not VP), Elliot Spitzer
Homeland Security: Warren Rudman, Gary Hart, Claudia J. Kennedy
Treasury: Frank Raines, Paul Krugman (could be chair of economic advisors)
HHS: Howard Dean, John Kitzhaber
HUD: Wellington Webb
Environmental Protection: (upgraded from EPA to cabinet Dept. of EP) -- Al Gore

Additionally, Claudia Kennedy could also be a good pick for the Joint Chiefs or as national security advisor. The list is thin on women, so I hope others provide some women's names, especially for the top few posts.