Well, if you were looking for a progressive to fill the position of Secretary of Interior, you will be disappointed to learn that Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) has been selected. On the other hand, if you are interested in seeing a more progressive Senate, this could lead to that outcome. It’s possible that Ken’s younger older brother John will get promoted from the House, but there are other potential replacements.
Gov. Bill Ritter would pick a replacement to finish out the senator’s term if he accepts.
There has been some speculation about who would fill his seat in the Senate if Salazar does join the Obama Administration. Several names have been mentioned, including Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, outgoing Colorado House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, and the senator’s brother, Rep. John Salazar.
Rep. John Salazar reportedly turned down an offer to serve as Secretary of Agriculture in order to accept a seat on the House Appropriations Committee. He may prefer to remain in the House to moving to a no-seniority position in the Senate. I hope so.
The selection of Ken Salazar makes sense, as the Interior position normally goes to someone from the West. I will have to research Ken Salazar’s environmental record to know whether this pick is disastrous, or merely a disappointment. Regardless, the diversity beat marches on.
Update [2008-12-16 0:4:22 by BooMan]: Obama has selected Arne Duncan as Secretary of Education. I think you can safely consider Duncan to be a true progressive selection, although he won’t necessarily hew to the teacher union’s party-line. Duncan has a fascinating biography. He grew up in Hyde Park and was boyhood friends with R. Kelly. We was a star basketball player at Harvard and went on to play professionally in Australia. He met his wife in Tasmania. And check this:
Duncan was raised in Hyde Park area of South Side Chicago, where his father Starkey Duncan was a psychology professor at the University of Chicago, and mother Susan Morton runs Sue Duncan’s Children’s Center on the city’s south side for African American youth. Duncan spent a great deal of his free time at his mother’s center tutoring children and sharpening his basketball skills with the neighborhood children.
