Cabinet Choices

Cabinet choices, as a rule, are the privilege that affords a president the opportunity to have like-minded men and women around him to advise on matters specific to the department the individual is named to head up. Rarely, has the Secretary-Designate been confirmed to head one post and used to advise the president on matters not specific to his department. Attorney General Robert Kennedy was used in dual and, possibly, multiple capacities for obvious reasons.

Rarely, also, does the Senate refuse to confirm a designate to a cabinet post. The last time a nominee was not confirmed to a president's cabinet was in 1989, when former Senator John Tower was not confirmed to the post of Defense Secretary. During the G W Bush administration, Attorney General Gonzales was confirmed after a contentious nomination process, because the Senators recognized the long-held tradition that a president should have people around him with whom he can work.

Current names bing circulated for President Obama's second term openings are Senator John Kerry for State, former Senator Chuck Hagel for Defense and  counter terrorism chief John Brennan for CIA.  In each case, both the mainstream media and cable news channels are reporting the negative reasons from each party and from all political spectra against each nominee.

Understandably, these concerns should be vetted openly. But barring any presently unknown factors, which are criminal in nature and not issues of political disagreement, each nomination must be confirmed. Each nominee has served this country honorably and decently within his own political beliefs, and while I do not agree with some of those beliefs, differing opinions are what we were founded on and have brought us to this point in our history. Honest debate is a good and intelligent exercise among fair-minded people.

President Obama has shown by these nominations that he wants a bipartisan administration during his second term. He certainly should be given the opportunity to begin his term with the people he has chosen, as previous presidents have been afforded. And perhaps, an underlying benefit might be the healing of the current political rift that has divided this country for the last 15 years.

It can't hurt and certainly worth a try.