Sunday, November 09, 2008

Don't Even Think About It

UPDATE: below

According to today's New York Times, President-elect Obama is considering Jamie Gorelick, who was Clinton's # 2 at the Justice Department, for Attorney General. This would be a huge mistake, particularly given her contribution to national insecurity and cover-up of same on the 9-11 commission. And there's more--for what has to be the first time, I agree with Slate's Timothy Noah, who provides "A guide to key appointments Obama should resist":
Attorney General. Do not appoint Jamie Gorelick. It pains me to write this partly because I know and like Gorelick and mostly because by all accounts she performed brilliantly as deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration. But her subsequent hiring as vice chair at Fannie Mae, despite her lack of any background in finance, and most especially the $26.4 million she received in total compensation over a period of six years disqualify her for public office.
Read Noah's entire article, which also includes:
State Department. Do not appoint Bill Richardson, who by some accounts is the front-runner. Obama may feel he owes Richardson because the New Mexico governor endorsed him after dropping out of the presidential race and ended up being called a "Judas" by James Carville. But Richardson took his sweet time before embracing Obama; he dropped out in mid-January and didn't cough up the endorsement until late March. Richardson's résumé includes Clinton administration stints as energy secretary and as U.N. ambassador. He didn't perform either job particularly well. As energy secretary, Richardson rashly accused Los Alamos official Wen Ho Lee of espionage--a charge later proved false. As U.N. ambassador, Richardson didn't do anything anyone can remember except offer Monica Lewinsky a job three months before the story of her affair with President Clinton hit the Internet. . .

Also, do not appoint John Kerry. The 2004 election demonstrated that nobody likes him. That isn't disqualifying for a senator, but it is for a diplomat. . .

Supreme Court. Do not appoint Hillary Clinton. The Supreme Court needs jurists, not politicians. Plus, Bill would drive the other justices crazy.
MORE:

Confederate Yankee agrees. So does TigerHawk. Patterico too.

(via Instapundit)

2 comments:

kondratief said...

Clinton's first AG appointment was Lani Guinere!!

In comparison, how bad can Jamie Gorelick be?

@nooil4pacifists said...

Actually, Guinier was nominated as an Assistant Attorney General to head the Civil Rights Division, not as AG. Clinton's first two, failed, AG nominations were Zoe Baird and Kimba Wood, each--in my opinion--good and qualified lawyers.

Gorelick would be way worse.