Armchair Cabinet Appointment Advice FAIL

by matttbastard

Eddie Griffin’s bipartisan pick for Homeland Security secretary leaves a lot to be desired:

To begin the List of Appointments, Eddie Griffin recommends Retired General Collin Powell to the position of Secretary of Homeland Security, because he is a man into whose hands we can sleep well, feeling safe and sound, inside our homes, in America. Despite the bad rumor that sent us into the Iraq war, Powell hit Saddam Hussein with everything the U.S. was proudly made of. He led the battle charge and will readily do so again if the US is pushed to act.

Don’t mess with Uncle Sam under an Obama administration with Collin Powell, heading Homeland and the fight against terrorism, domestic and abroad.

Oooook–is Griffin endorsing Colin Powell, or GI Joe? Though admittedly not a fan of hers, matttbastard would much rather have Jane Harman get the nod as DHS chief over a man who dutifully exploited (and eagerly sacrificed) his then-highly-solvent moral capital to brazenly lie us into the still-ongoing quagmire (yes, Eddie, quagmire) that is Iraq.

Also, while I’m fully on board with efforts to make sure Larry Summers doesn’t receive the keys to the Treasury Department ever again, I find it hard to believe that Lucinda Marshall’s proposed alternative is offered in earnest (though this apparently and unfortunately seems to be the case):

Finally, in the last few days, efforts have begun to make lists of women who should be a part of the new administration. That it is necessary to make these lists is a testament to the fact that we’ve not come quite that far baby. But necessary it is and there are way too many very capable, qualified women to mention here, but when confronted by the misogyny of the notion that Larry Summers would be an appropriate choice for Secretary of the Treasury, it feels appropriate to offer the name of Naomi Klein, author of the Shock Doctrine who is one of the few people that seems to understand the dynamics of our economic crisis. While she is a Canadian citizen, there does not appear to be a Constitutional requirement that Cabinet members be U.S. citizens and she would be an excellent choice if the Obama administration is truly interested in transformational change.

Naomi Klein is a clear, concise writer, an experienced journalist–and, as Marshall noted, a fellow Canuck. Obama would be smart to study her coverage of the current economic crisis. However, I’m almost certain Klein would be the first to say that this does not in any way qualify her to run a cabinet office of the US Executive branch.

Seriously.

Look, I want Obama to field a diverse cabinet as much as the next progressive. And I often find myself in agreement with much of what Griffin and Marshall have to say (well, ok, Marshall a hell of a lot more than Griffin, who isn’t what I’d label ‘progressive’–YMMV.) But come on–pop culture ubiquity does not necessarily translate into cabinet-level expertise, regardless of race, gender or ideological preference.

On that note, what d’yall think about George Clinton for Secretary of Funk?

Now that’s what I call transformational change to make your booty rearrange.

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