In Come the Ghouls

Since confirmation hearings are underway, it is no longer too early for a quick(ish) Obama cabinet run-down slamfest.

Look, the left has been grumbling for months now about the centrism of Obama’s picks. There is already a lot written about this, including this useful post from Glen Greenwald, which includes some good links to both sides of the “Obama moderation” debate. Still, there’s a lot to say about this gang of picks, so let’s do a quick breakdown on who’s going to be running the country for the next four (or more) years:

Robert Gates - So let’s get this right: Obama, who ran on a platform of ending the wars we are in, is keeping the guy from the previous administration who was running the wars. Sure, there’s some nuance there. Gates wasn’t the architect of the plan to launch the war, but doesn’t it stick in the craw just a little to keep the guy running the whole operation that you were elected for critiquing? Sure, Gates will (try to) end the war if Obama tells him to, but that’s the same argument as “it doesn’t matter who he hires, because they’ll just be implementing Obama’s will.” That argument applies to every one of Obama’s hires and will be discussed below. Gates, for his part, is an Iran-Contra scandalized, former CIA militarist d-bag who used to spend a ton of time posting as Ranger65 on Texas A&M message boards.

Tom Daschle – We get a failed Senator (How do you lose to a guy like Thune?) to run our nation’s health care, another of Obama’s most important campaign platforms. All that needs to be said about Daschle is said by Matt Taibbi in this article about whores.

Rahm Israel Emanuel – I’ve already said a lot about Rahm-bo and how he isn’t representative of the kind of political change we were expecting out of the Obama administration. While I’m not sure Emanuel will get sucked into the corruption scandals surrounding the Illinois political sewer from whence he emerged, I’m also not convinced that Rahm will just be an opinion-free enforcer, shelving his own opinions to bust skulls enforcing Obama’s will. The guy is a Wall Street millionaire who is likely cheerleading the current Israeli bombing efforts. Great pick.

Hillary Clinton – Yes, this AIPAC stooge will be the perfect person to use skillful statecraft and diplomacy to bring peace to the Middle East.

Bill Richardson – Um, yes. Nothing to see here. The bloated corruption chin will be slinking back to Santa Fe to sort out some, um, personal issues.

Janet Napolitano – She’s a big fan of lunatic redneck Sheriff Joe. That ought to say enough about her qualifications to run Homeland Security USA. I consider this Village Voice piece a satisfactory takedown.

Tom Vilsack – The new head of the Department of Agriculture was 2001’s “Governor of the Year” for the Biotechnology Industry Organization. Sigh. His appointment is a nod to the big “farm state” interests that have driven us to the point of extinction and contaminated our food supply with GMOs and staked our energy future on ethanol. As a vegetarian, I accept that not everyone thinks like me and the Organic Consumers Association, but I’ll challenge anyone to a debate on American’s farm policy and Vilsack’s positions on everything from genetics to farm subsidies. This guy sucks. I like all of the alternatives offered by John Nichols over at The Nation.

Ray LaHood – The token republican. I’ve already ripped up this Department of Transportation pick here.

Sanjay Gupta – While Dr. Gupta is too smart to be fairly lumped in with the rest of the CNN mimbos, even if sharp, he is still a tool. I first heard of this guy when he was doing what passes for war coverage in this day and age, stopping his “journalism” to participate in the scene. That incident raises more of an interesting question about journalism/medical ethics than it does speak to his qualifications to be a federal figurehead. However, Paul Krugman nails it, properly bringing up the time that Gupta was trotted out to attack Michael Moore. That was disgraceful. Also, yes, we know Surgeon General isn’t a cabinet slot. Update: John Conyers: Not a fan.

More information is needed about these people – in other words, they could be okay, but we’re not totally sure.

Steven Chu – The new Energy Secretary was the director of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. A Nobel prize is cool (won for “trapping atoms with lasers,” whatever the hell that means). On the plus side, he is likely to be more pro-science than anyone from the previous administration, which only means he isn’t likely to derive this thoughts from chicken bones and tea leaves and a tortilla with the face of Jesus on it.

Eric Holder – Attorney General. The good: He’s a black guy who isn’t on the record (as far as I know) as saying how he thinks torture is super awesome. Also, not that this qualifies him to be AG, but his sister-in-law, Vivian Malone Jones, was sort of a hero of mine. The bad: He has represented pharma-evil giant Merck and, worse, Chiquita (in some death squad ugliness in Colombia). Now, some unsavory clients may be inevitable for any high-powered D.C. lawyer in private practice, but it certainly doesn’t make me thrilled about him.

Tim Geithner – He used to work for Kissinger & Associates, but just that doesn’t make him evil. On the other hand, mega-weirdo Jim Cramer hates him. That might just be enough of a reason to like him. With the Bear Stearns bailout on his hands, expect a messy confirmation hearing while members of Congress try to get over on him with the slivers and shreds of economics they dimly remember from college. He has been president of the Federal Reserve of NY since 2003, and has presided over the current dissolution of the economy. It’s not clear why this means he should be moved up to the corner office. But Obama’s probably given a lot of thought to this pick, so we’re willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one (for a short while).

Arne Duncan – He didn’t make the Celtics when he tried out after graduating from Harvard, but did play in Australia’s National Basketball League for several years. After a campaign where education reform got massively short-changed, Duncan’s appointment to run the Department of Education is cause for some cautious optimism. He’s done a good job in Chicago. But it’s worth noting that before he was hired to run the Chicago schools (he was promoted when Paul Vallas left), Duncan had no teaching or school administration experience. Also, this FAIR article on the bad debate about who should be Secretary of Education is worth reading … maybe if you’re less jaded than us, you’ll be shocked that the “debate” was rigged. Too bad about the hatchet job on Linda Darling-Hammond.

Ken Salazar – The NYT’s rap on this Department of the Interior pick is that he might be “too nice.” That’s one way of saying that he’s going to need to have some cajones if he is going to come in and fire all of the Cheney and Gail Norton assholes that spent their years of federal service ruining our country. I don’t like that he’s a rancher who wears a cowboy hat, but I do feel like our nation owes him and Colorado voters some gratitude for keeping noted beer-making fascist Pete Coors out of the U.S. Senate. Still, check this press release. Worrisome.

It’s not all gloom and doom and Internet cynicism. There were three good picks by Obama, all women -

Dawn Johnsen – Office of Legal Counsel – Glen Greenwald likes her. I do too.

Elizabeth Warren – A Harvard professor who’s been on the cutting edge of academic work on the structure of the economy, and now has a much more high profile and powerful position with a direct line of communication to those making policy. Her ideas seem to have developed in an atmosphere much less contaminated by political considerations than many of the other economic talking heads, and she seems genuinely interested in reforms that help low income and working class Americans.

Carol Browner - coordinator of energy and climate policy (a.k.a. “climate czar”); She was on this webpage (and is still listed over to the side). I guess having an executive appointee on the webpage for Socialist International “isn’t cool.” Update: Browner has now been fully purged from the Socialist International webpage.

Now, lastly, let’s talk about the “These people don’t matter because they are just doing Obama’s bidding” argument. This negates the importance of the picks altogether, and ignores the nature of the modern executive branch while buying in to the whole notion of Obama-as-uber-saviour who will exert day to day control over a sprawling bureaucracy. That’s just naive.