The Friday Line: Ranking the Cabinet Confirmation Prospects
With President-elect Barack Obama having filled roughly half of his 15 Cabinet appointments by the end of this week, we thought now would be a good time to take a closer look at the confirmation prospects for each of the seven Cabinet members already chosen.
In truth, most of the soon-to-be president's picks are likely to be approved by the Senate barring some sort of glaring problem (see Baird, Zoe) with their backgrounds. Historically the pattern has been that the Senate generally defers to the president on his picks for the Cabinet but, according to the Post's indispensable Al Kamen, there always seems to be one person -- Linda Chavez, Baird, John Tower -- who doesn't make it through the confirmation process.
Who is this Administration's Tower/Baird/Chavez? We won't hazard a guess and, remember, that with eight Cabinet officials still not named, the nominee most likely to go down in flames may not even be known yet.
Below you'll find our rankings of the squirm factor for the seven men and women Obama has selected to fill Cabinet jobs in his Administration. The number one ranked person is the one likely to squirm the most under questioning from the Senate. To be clear, all seven of these people seem likely to be confirmed today but some of them will cruise to confirmation while others will stumble to it.
As always, the Line is meant to spark conversation so use the comments section to agree or disagree with our picks or rankings.
7. Robert Gates (Defense): Gates is already the Secretary of Defense. So, he doesn't need to be confirmed by the Senate. Done and done.
6. Tim Geithner (Treasury): Geithner's credentials as head of the New York Fed are impeccable, and, given the current economic strife gripping the country, it's hard to imagine any senator risking his or her political life by delaying this confirmation in any way, shape or form.
5. Janet Napolitano (Homeland Security): The strong support of Sen. John McCain for his home state governor's nomination to the post would seem to clear the decks for Napolitano. Party operatives who know her also speak highly of her political acumen and smarts so don't expect any flubs here. (Napolitano would almost assuredly welcome a lower profile given the hubbub over comments made about her this week by Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.)
4 (tie). Tom Daschle (Health and Human Services)/Hillary Rodham Clinton (State): Both Daschle and Clinton have their enemies in the Senate but the world's greatest deliberative body generally protects its own -- Tower being a high-profile exception -- and it's hard to imagine either nominee getting too bad a grilling from their colleagues.
2. Bill Richardson (Commerce): Working in the New Mexico governor's favor is that he spent nearly two decades in Congress -- building relationships that should help him during confirmation. Richardson's role in the Wen Ho Lee case during his tenure as Energy Secretary in the Clinton Administration is already being mentioned as an issue and almost assuredly will come up during confirmation hearings.
1. Eric Holder (Justice): Holder, who led Obama's vice presidential search earlier this year, seems to be the one nominee thus far about whom Republicans are publicly raising questions. The central issue for Holder is the pardon by President Bill Clinton of financier Marc Rich whose ex-wife was a major donor to the Clintons and the Democratic Party. During the Rich pardon, Holder was serving as deputy attorney general and played enough of a role for the Post's own Richard Cohen to insist in a recent column that Holder should be disqualified for the AG post.
By Chris Cillizza | December 5, 2008; 5:45 AM ET
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