The Biden Cabinet and Administration

So stories are starting to pop up about who Biden will choose as his top advisers, and I figure we might as well gather them all in one place.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/10/politics/biden-harris-administration/index.html

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/biden-cabinet-picks-candidates

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/11/us/politics/biden-cabinet.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/07/joe-biden-cabinet-picks-possible-choices-433431

Scrolling through, it seems like a lot of the same names are coming up. It seems like there don't seem to be all that many Republicans in the mix, and there don't seem to be too many progressives beyon Sanders.

I do welcome the notion of bringing on board people with clear expertise in their respective fields and no one who seems like they are literally opposed to the traditional agenda of the agency they are to cover.

I also think it's great that diversity is back on the table.

Thing that made me go hmmm....

Biden named a former Alito clerk for his attorney. The same guy had been his campaign's attorney, so it's not an inherent shocker.

But I find it interesting as a signal nevertheless...

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/...mer-alito-clerk-to-top-white-house-job-437005

I'm waiting for the "diversity shouldn't matter, only qualifications should matter" shrieking to begin again, ignoring the last four years of the president appointing his campaign donors, business associates, and various sycophants to every position possible. That was different because reasons.

Or that Trump for many of his cabinet positions (and other positions) chose people with little or literally no experience in what they were overseeing. I am more qualified to have run HUD than Ben Carson since I too am black and actually worked briefly for a housing agency. And Trump's pics for the federal judiciary included a number of people the American Bar Association rated as unqualified, some of whom had never participated in a trial.

Trump went out of his way to select people who were actually hostile to the departments they were assigned to. Rick Perry as Energy Secretary? Betsy Deer-in-the-Headlights DeVos, who probably counts on her fingers as Education Secretary? Oh, I could go on...

Attempt to "drain the swamp" by seeding it with landmines, or just a sick joke?

Nice move if true!

Apparently he's chosen a treasury secretary. Teasing that it's somebody who will make all flanks of the party happy (though, obviously, there's a segment of the Bernie Brigades who will never be pleased by anyone other than Bernie himself or possibly the reanimated corpse of Che Guevara).

Speculation I've seen so far is either Janet Yellin (former Fed chair) or Sarah Raskin (deputy secretary in the Obama administration).

Have any of them held senior positions at large financial institutions or investment firms?

If so, they should be immediately disqualified.

I don’t agree. Garland has an expansive view of executive power. Not rising to Bill Barr levels, of course, but the blood and tears of the last four years may have dyed some people’s glasses with regard to how much executive power was expanded during the Obama years. I remember when there was still outrage over killing US citizens without due process, and criticism that Garland was being nominated to rubber stamp it.

Come on, your last name is Blinken, call your son Abe.

Where are secretaries Winken and Nod going to serve?

A Latino dude to be in charge of Homeland Security, which is in charge of ICE?

John Kerry in charge of climate stuff?



https://www.cnbc.com/2020/11/23/joe...binet-picks-including-secretary-of-state.html

Hopefully he brings in some of the high ranking generals which the orangeman appointed then sacked and ridiculed. That would be a nice FU to the departing idiot. I'm sure @oldfella1962 would be pleased with proper military appointments and no doubt @Paladin would be overjoyed that we can finally get some grown ups in the room.......

Yay more revolving door from the Fed to the Treasury.

It's so weird to think of Mayor Pete having cultists. I know plenty of people who supported him, donated to his campaign, etc., but he just ... isn't the kind of person you imagine people getting like that about.

Andrew Yang probably wouldn't be a bad pick.

I met one here in Australia around the start of the year, who was planning to fly back to help his campaign.

The story goes that Warren and Markey leaned hard on Yellen for the Fed while he was getting pressure from others to appoint the horrible Larry Summers.

From what I'm seeing having Yellen there is practically the same difference as having Warren in the job and you don't have to risk the Senate seat.

Which... I approve.

Based on the last couple of years, if I'm plucking out a Federal judge for AG - it's Emmit Sullivan.

The fantasy world inhabited by Fox News personalities just keeps getting weirder.

I'm not crazy about the appointments. They're obviously a more competent bunch than what Trump has had, but they signal a return to BAU, a continuation of Clinton-Obama style corporate centrism, which for reasons we've been over elsewhere, is not going to cut it on multiple fronts. Not a surprise though, given the situation.

Janet Yellen is the one (relatively) bright spot.

Well, we could have run Bernie and gotten 30% of the vote.