Who's Nice, Who's Not
President-Elect Barack Obama and his team won the election with good campaign leadership, a calm temperament, intelligence, savvy, perseverance, some luck, and lots of other things. Obama is quickly moving to assemble his teams. Such decisions will of course elicit approval from some, condemnation from others. Obama picked his Chief of Staff this week, Rahm Emanuel, a man with a fearsome reputation. Everyone has an opinion, with some claiming that the Rahm pick indicates a partisan direction for Obama's governance style.
For the rest of the top positions each media publication seems to have its own list of "probable picks". FoxNews writes it's list under the happy title: "Obama, Leaning on Clintonian Dems, Might Tap Republicans". The Nation encourages Obama to depend on Robert Reich and David Bonior more than the many "investment-banker, free-trader" types who dominate the stages.
The lists from disparate political camps overlap, but can be improbably different from each other. They're perhaps "predictive", by certainly sometimes no more than "wishful thinking". It seems that the more the individual has been in the news, the bolder the media opinions about the suitability of their role and the quicker the lines are drawn.
For instance Larry Summers' name arose as possible Treasury Secretary. The Financial Times, favors Larry Summers, who has been a columnist for the paper since he resigned the Harvard presidency. Summers got himself in trouble at Harvard most famously by stating at a woman's conference that women's abilities in science and math might be limited by genetics or personal preferences.
His opinion elicited furor from men and women alike, especially scientists who knew better. For all the disputation, however, if there was any time in the past couple of decades when such regressive ideas might gain public traction, 2005 seemed like a ripe time. There were plenty of people who jumped at the opportunity to riff off Summer's comments under the guise of "what's wrong with asking for more research on the issue?" Perhaps arguing for Dr. Summers, or appropriating his views for an ascendant ideology, one Financial Times columnist wrote:
"The trouble is not that Mr Summers is too self-satisfied. It is that Harvard is. Harvard - and US universities like it - tend to promulgate a set of views - global warming is a crisis; the US is to blame for the world's troubles; governments of developed nations ought to be large; and quotas or some form of affirmative action is required when it comes to the advancement of women and minorities. These same universities often shut out, or look away from, arguments that do not support these beliefs. The result is not "neo-Stalinist" monoliths - novelist Michael Crichton's description of universities in his current bestseller, State of Fear. But it is universities that are boring, provincial, shut in.
Mr Summers was trying to kick open doors - to recapture for Harvard the sense of intellectual possibility that leads to progress. The "woman" controversy is a good example. The fact that more maths prodigies are boys is not even hypothetical; the data have been out there for decades. When tested in hard sciences girls tend to clump in the middle of the statistical range. Boys, by contrast, are more spread out - hitting stellar highs and humiliating lows more frequently.
If, after decades of promoting girls, boys still do better, it is not crazy to wonder whether the difference is hardwired....(Shalaes, A. FT, 01/2005)"
The columnist's assertions about math and science skills, as well as Summer's, are dead wrong. We all know this, these opinions have been disproved by many a study. Summers' apologized profusely and explained he didn't mean it as it was taken. He stepped aside as Harvard's president, but continues to work in positions of prestige and influence.
This one episode in Summers' long career may or may not influence whether Obama chooses him, however it's fresh in people's minds. The National Organization for Women, (NOW), decried the idea of Summers for Treasury Secretary, citing his gaffes about gender as well as his leadership on some deregulatory points that contributed to the current financial market strife.1Time lists more Summer's misteps (such as the Summer's memo) of Summers past, then balances the list of cons by noting his intelligence. Each source draws their own conclusion about his suitability. Some students support his possible nomination, writing odes to him based on their favorable experiences as female students.
Pick Me! Pick Me!
There's also a general shuffling around in congress, with key players circling key leadership roles. Of great interest to many of people, Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA), is vying to replace Congressman John Dingell's (D-MI) on the Energy and Commerce Chairman. Waxman has been a bulldog on the Oversight and Government Reform Committee and Dingell's powerful position on Energy and Commerce has long checked the Democrat party's efforts on emissions. Dingell is a vigilant protector of the American auto industry status quo who fought against CAFE standard updates, and against California's attempts to pass a bill to allow states to pass their own global warming legislation. In "Congress on CAFE: Detroit misled us", we mention Dingell's history of successes.
Some of Dingell's other work on the committee is fighting against bisphenol A (BPA). As we've mentioned, the congressman burnishes his credentials by balancing his anti-environment stances on emissions. In a letter to his committee members asking for support he wrote that his current objectives were working healthcare reform, global warming, and overhauling the FDA.
There's not too many people who think Dingell's work on global-warming has been noteworthy. A couple of weeks ago EnergyWashington Week reported that the Ways and Means Committee introduced its own cap-and-trade legislation and is attempting to circumvent Dingell's more lax Energy & Commerce Committee cap-and-trade legislation.
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