In today's WaPo there is an article about what Joe (read: his advisers and handlers) are planning for his Administration. They are taking seriously the Constitutionally questionable idea that he put forth a "shadow government" during the pandemic and that he name his transition coordinator very soon (Read: measuring the drapes. We know how those tend to turn out).
But I digress. Joe has already mentioned that he wants a woman for VP and will appoint a black woman to the USSC. You know, I thought we passed a Civil Rights law that prohibited job selection on the basis of race and/or gender. So right there I'd say he's breaking the law. Not to mention pandering big time.
But then it goes on to discuss his Cabinet. First, that he would look for Bush Administration alums for national security type jobs. #NeverTrumpers, anyone? Didn't we elect Donald Trump specifically to get rid of the guys who brought you Iraq and the endless AF war?
Then it says that he will elevate two WH staff offices into Cabinet positions and establish another. As a retired employee of EPA who was there during the debate and eventually unsuccessful attempt to properly make EPA a Cabinet office, through legislation (died because of bipartisan opposition), I find that Presidents just deciding "poof! You're a Cabinet officer!" is probably contrary to existing law. Anyway, the whole concept of the Cabinet, as opposed to the WH staff, is that Cabinet officers (even the current ones who were elevated without benefit of legislation) have LINE authority to do the government's business. To implement legislation and write regulations and enforce those regulations, by law. They aren't WH staff writing papers and coordinating meetings to advise the President. So I find elevating this staff to Cabinet rank to be a joke, frankly.
The staff he intends to elevate are the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which was around when I was an undergraduate student in the early 70s, to elevate the previously downgraded head of the staff coordinating pandemics in the National Security Council, and to create a new, over EPA (and presumably over the Council on Environmental Quality) climate change coordinator. We have a National Science Foundation and a whole host of other agencies with line authority to implement science policy -- NIH, NOAA, EPA, Interior, Agriculture, NASA, to name a few. We also have an EPA. And a pandemic coordinator? Strikes me as fulfilling what I call one of the Rules of Bureaucracy -- We fight the last war, not the next one.
Anyway, these are gestures. They are for appearances sake. They do nothing to advance any agenda other than a PR one. Of course, coming out of the Obama Administration it's not surprising that Joe would think this is the way you govern because that's how Obama operated.
And they are virtue signaling. See? Joe cares about these things.
Joe has been an empty suit his entire political career. Looks like his Presidency (unlikely though that is) would just be a continuation of that.
But I digress. Joe has already mentioned that he wants a woman for VP and will appoint a black woman to the USSC. You know, I thought we passed a Civil Rights law that prohibited job selection on the basis of race and/or gender. So right there I'd say he's breaking the law. Not to mention pandering big time.
But then it goes on to discuss his Cabinet. First, that he would look for Bush Administration alums for national security type jobs. #NeverTrumpers, anyone? Didn't we elect Donald Trump specifically to get rid of the guys who brought you Iraq and the endless AF war?
Then it says that he will elevate two WH staff offices into Cabinet positions and establish another. As a retired employee of EPA who was there during the debate and eventually unsuccessful attempt to properly make EPA a Cabinet office, through legislation (died because of bipartisan opposition), I find that Presidents just deciding "poof! You're a Cabinet officer!" is probably contrary to existing law. Anyway, the whole concept of the Cabinet, as opposed to the WH staff, is that Cabinet officers (even the current ones who were elevated without benefit of legislation) have LINE authority to do the government's business. To implement legislation and write regulations and enforce those regulations, by law. They aren't WH staff writing papers and coordinating meetings to advise the President. So I find elevating this staff to Cabinet rank to be a joke, frankly.
The staff he intends to elevate are the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, which was around when I was an undergraduate student in the early 70s, to elevate the previously downgraded head of the staff coordinating pandemics in the National Security Council, and to create a new, over EPA (and presumably over the Council on Environmental Quality) climate change coordinator. We have a National Science Foundation and a whole host of other agencies with line authority to implement science policy -- NIH, NOAA, EPA, Interior, Agriculture, NASA, to name a few. We also have an EPA. And a pandemic coordinator? Strikes me as fulfilling what I call one of the Rules of Bureaucracy -- We fight the last war, not the next one.
Anyway, these are gestures. They are for appearances sake. They do nothing to advance any agenda other than a PR one. Of course, coming out of the Obama Administration it's not surprising that Joe would think this is the way you govern because that's how Obama operated.
And they are virtue signaling. See? Joe cares about these things.
Joe has been an empty suit his entire political career. Looks like his Presidency (unlikely though that is) would just be a continuation of that.
