When Obama won four years ago, the Washington state rumor mill started swirling tales of a cabinet post for the newly re-elected Gov. Gregoire.
It didn’t happen, and it was never realistic to think it would.
With Obama’s re-election and Gregoire’s retirement from her two-term gig as Governor, this rumor come off as more realistic:
Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire may wind up as Secretary of the Interior after President Obama completes an expected Cabinet reshuffle for his second term.
I hope so. Gregoire has been an excellent steward of Washington’s environs in her eight years at the top.
Actually, the shitty economy — particularly the housing/construction part of it — should get most of the credit for tamping down the environmental damage.
No doubt she was better than the alternatives, but state environmental staffing / enforcement has been gutted on her watch — both budget and devolution of responsibility. There is essentially no enforcement capacity at the state now.
Rhyming history, she’ll be better than the current guy who ain’t that great — but not by much.
I’d much rather see Gregoire retire than go on to any cabinet post.
Sorry to disagree with 1 & 2, but Gregoire has been an excellent governor of this state and one of historical quality.
I hope she is up for a position in DC. The president still needs all the help he can get.
LOLZ
@3
In my case it’s not so much that I think Gregoire’s done poorly as it is that I think it’s time to pass the torch to a new group of leadership.
I think we’ve entered a period of punctuated equilibrium within our society and that most of the people who’ve been in leadership positions for the last 20 years, even the ones that have done well, don’t grasp what what’s coming at us and would do poorly in leading us through a period of rapid change that will be very unlike the America of the last 40 years.
On the plus side, I think Jay Inslee, Maria Cantwell, and Peter Goldmark are well suited for the job.
Why not the state supreme court? She can have Jim Johnson’s seat. Yeah, I know his term expires in 2017, but he owes it to the citizens of Washington to step aside for someone better than he. Or if Johnson refuses to quit in the public interest, maybe Obama should put her on the U.S. Supreme Court to replace Ginsburg. She’s a better lawyer than most of the guys already on SCOTUS. If Ginsburg doesn’t retire, maybe Scalia should retire to make room for Gregoire. He’s useless and wouldn’t be missed by anyone.
@6 Not to mention Thomas…
Gregoire could run for president if she wanted to. I’m not saying she should. I’m just pointing out it’s gonna be 40 years before another Republican wins the White House.
The electoral college math says so. Any Democrat starts out with 253 EVs (NM and NV are now part of the “blue wall”) and all s/he has to do is win 1 swing state — Ohio.
And Republicans are so bad it doesn’t matter who the Democrat is. Even Gregoire could do it. Hell, a D.C. alderman could do it.
http://www.cnn.com/2012/11/12/.....hpt=hp_bn3
@6. Roger Rabbit spews, in part: If Ginsburg doesn’t retire, maybe Scalia should retire to make room for Gregoire. He’s useless and wouldn’t be missed by anyone.
But who would there be to tell Clarence Thomas how to vote?
@#9 we need really young healthy liberals for seats on the SCOTUS.
Fanboys of Gregoire
Gregoire is neither a failure nor a grand success .. she is — if the term can be used in a positive sense … a bureaucrat.
The idea of her on the Supreme Court is absurd. Whatever organizational role she had in the Supreme Court Tobacco case, she was hardly an intellectual lead. Her career as AG for WA state is marked with some admin skills but some serious holes in legal skills. I could guess that she might be the white lady who replaced Holder id there were not so many white, catholic lawyer ladies in front of her (Napolitano, Granholm, ???)
As for the rest of the cabinet … I think she is at best a weak choice. She would bring admin skills that one hopes the civil service already has. Her political shekels would be of limited value. Does the cabinet need another white, catholic lady? As for the environment, is Ms. Gregoire noted as a champion of the Sierra Club? Maybe our Mayor would be better choice.
If the ethnic things is an issue … how about Castro, the mayor of San Antonio?
If I local local, I wold much rather see Ron Sims in that role … the ethnic advantage speaks volumes and he has great political skills.
I do think she will go to DC but imagine if she were to get a big job in the cabinet it would
more likely be in Commerce (the secretary from Boeing and Microsoft?) o
10
We surely do. Kennedy will be gone this term, together with any pretense that he was ever moderate. I don’t say that by way of suggesting I don’t think he was judicial. He took his role seriously, unlike Clarence Thomas, but he was never any sort of centrist. Ginsberg, the most liberal on the Court, will retire, hopefully to be replaced by a young, healthy liberal. Those two are gone, for sure. Scalia, though long past retirement age by most standards, is far too partisan to ever retire with a Democrat in office. He will, accordingly, die with a Democrat in office.
SJ @ 11
There could be an opening at Justice. A lot of talk about Holder leaving, even before this prolonged secret investigation of Petraeus (and his successor general in charge of the Afghanistan war as well). Napolitano is mostly talked of as a Holder successor, but Gregoire is arguably qualified as well.
Interior is a much better match for Gregoire. And far less chance of screwing up critical matters in that position as well. As for Supreme Court, Gregoire would be almost as bad of a mismatch as that woman lawyer from Texas that Bush briefly proposed for the high court.
racism, the progressive way.
I think Gregoire has done a find job in difficult circumstances. I think she’d do fine on either the State of U.S. Supreme Court benches. She might not be interested in the state S.C. because it requires her to run for re-election every term of office, which is a distraction.
And I hate to bring it up, but at age 65 Gregoire may be a bit too old for a U.S. Supreme Court appointment. Those don’t open up every often, and Presidents like to appoint people who will put their (the President’s) stamp on the court for at least thirty years or so. Therefore, President’s usually look at someone in their lower to mid-fifties.