Transition: The Romney Cabinet

The Obama Cabinet on Press Day

Surely somebody in the Romney-Ryan campaign is making short lists for the Cabinet.  Here's mine:

VICE PRESIDENT - Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin)  Dick Cheney is said to worship the ground Ryan walks on, ..Pretty good for a long time member of the Republican House Leadership who, himself served as Gerald Ford's Chief of Staff and G.W. Bush's Vice President.   Ryan fits in his relationship to the powerblock in the House: Tea Party independent thinkers.   His Task:  Thrash the budget, eliminate ear marks and make The Economy HAPPEN as Mitt downsizes the American Government in the direction Washington and Franklin intended.  

These two iconic founding fathers believed that a federal government should handle a centralized postal system (Ben's idea) and George's thought that America existed to rally the national guard in defending the United States under a central command.  Another founding father, conspicuous by his absence at the two continental congresses that produced both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution was Patrick Henry who "smelled a rat" as some founding fathers rubbed their hands together in anticipation of a national tax system that has ended up lately building bridges to nowhere in Alaska and Brazilian Butterfly studies!!!  .

NOTE:  In eighth grade at Laramie Junior High School, our civics teacher Mr. Plothow taught us a pneumonic device (my first) to remember the cabinet officers of the president.  It was 1959 at the end of the prosperous Eisenhower 2nd term, the height of the cold war!  Here it is: ST. DAPIACL  Short for State, Treasury, Defense, Attorney General, Post Master General, Interior, Agriculture, Commerce and Labor.   Since then we have added  Health Education & Welfare, Transportation, Energy, Education and Veterans and Homeland Security  at the cabinet level.  (EPA, FBI, CIA etc...all important are not cabinet level positions) 

Here's my picks in the order the cabinet officers were added historically::

STATE Jon Huntsman Jr. once Obama's ambassador to China.  Who better to make it stick with our major creditor.  Speaks fluent Chinese.

TREASURY Warren Buffet - Who better?

DEFENSE Leon Panetta former Congressman from California, lifelong Democrat Bi Partisan, former Clinton Chief of Staff.  It takes a while to master the pentagon.  Romney will downsize this department considerably.

ATTORNEY GENERAL Dallin H. Oaks - Former chief clerk to Chief Justice Earl Warren on the Supreme Court of the fifties; Former Dean of the University of Chicago Law School; former Justice of the Utah Supreme Court.   Would be the first LDS apostle to serve in a president's cabinet since Ezra Taft Benson was Secretary of Agriculture for both Eisenhower terms.

POSTER MASTER GENERAL Eliminate the department in favor of  UPS Brown and Fed Ex 

INTERIOR Larry Echohawk - Pawnee Indian from Idaho, he was the United States Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Indian Affairs. On May 20, 2009, Echo Hawk joined the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama as the head of the United States Bureau of Indian Affairs.^[1] He served as Attorney General of Idaho from 1991 to 1995.

AGRICULTURE Mike Leavitt - Former head of Enviornmental Affairs for G.W. Bush; former Health and Human Services secretary

COMMERCE Dave Checketts; former Vice President of the Utah Jazz, President of the Rio Tinto Professional Soccer Team.

LABOR Aspiring  Keep Democrat  George Schultz former Secretary of State

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES -  Rodney Brady; former deputy Secretary in the Nixon Administration, Harvard PhD in business; former president of Weber State College and CEO of the Bonneville Broadcast Group; former President Deseret Pharmaceutical; Member of the Board of the Boy Scouts of America.

TRANSPORTATION - Dave Neelman, president of Jet Blue Airlines

ENERGY  Ron Rifkin - an economist and author who KNOWS the industry (See Grampa in Training ___)

EDUCATION - Cede to the States

VETERANS ?

HOMELAND SECURITY - a diplomatic top cop, former Republican -  Rudy Juliani

EPA ? 

FBI Leave 'em there

CIA  Leave'em there too!

CHIEF OF STAFF:  Distinguished Names of the past: Don Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Leon Panetta, who have all gone on to bigger and better positions running things--or as in Rumsfield's case, thinking they could.  Paul Ryan would best qualify in my view, maybe one of Mitt's sons....Mike Leavitt?   Stay tuned.

KENNEDY CENTER ADMINISTRATOR - Mike Magleby, the best arts administrator I know.

For the record, here's an official White House Portrait of the current cabinet (Leon Panetta is now at Defense...formerly with the CIA)

Department Office Incumbent Image in office since Department of State Secretary of State (22 U.S.C. § 2651a) Hillary Clinton January 21, 2009 Department of the Treasury Secretary of the Treasury (31 U.S.C. § 301) Timothy Geithner January 26, 2009 Department of Defense Secretary of Defense (10 U.S.C. § 113) Leon Panetta July 1, 2011 Department of Justice Attorney General (28 U.S.C. § 503) Eric Holder February 2, 2009 Department of the Interior Secretary of the Interior (43 U.S.C. § 1451) Ken Salazar January 20, 2009 Department of Agriculture Secretary of Agriculture (7 U.S.C. § 2202) Tom Vilsack January 20, 2009 Department of Commerce Secretary of Commerce Acting (15 U.S.C. § 1501) Rebecca Blank June 11, 2012 Department of Labor Secretary of Labor (29 U.S.C. § 551) Hilda Solis February 24, 2009 Department of Health and Human Services Secretary of Health and Human Services (Reorganization Plan No. 1 of 1953, 67 Stat. 631 and 42 U.S.C. § 3501) Kathleen Sebelius April 28, 2009 Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (42 U.S.C. § 3532) Shaun Donovan January 26, 2009 Department of Transportation Secretary of Transportation (49 U.S.C. § 102) Ray LaHood January 22, 2009 Department of Energy Secretary of Energy (42 U.S.C. § 7131) Steven Chu January 20, 2009 Department of Education Secretary of Education (20 U.S.C. § 3411) Arne Duncan January 20, 2009 Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary of Veterans Affairs (38 U.S.C. § 303) Eric Shinseki January 20, 2009 Department of Homeland Security Secretary of Homeland Security (6 U.S.C. § 112) Janet Napolitano January 20, 2009 Cabinet-level officers Agency Office Incumbent Image in office since Office of the Vice President Vice President Joe Biden January 20, 2009 Executive Office of the President White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew January 27, 2012 Office of Management and Budget Director of the Office of Management and Budget Acting Jeffrey Zients January 27, 2012 Environmental Protection Agency Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Lisa P. Jackson January 23, 2009 Office of the Trade Representative Trade Representative Ron Kirk March 18, 2009 United States Mission to the United Nations Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice January 22, 2009 Council of Economic Advisers Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers Alan Krueger November 3, 2011 Small Business Administration Administrator of the Small Business Administration Karen Mills January 13, 2012[1]
Source:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Cabinet