The Biden Cabinet and Transition Thread (3 Viewers)

[GrandAdmiral]

Ok the rules:

• Your post can only contain one department and guess.
• You may post more than once for different departments.
• Post can contain comments about previous guesses.
• Guesses for one department can be used for other departments.
• Minds can, of course, be changed.

I will kick things off first...

Secretary of State: Susan Rice

This is as clear a choice as there can be. She has all of the credentials and rep to begin healing as relationships with our allies.

 

[insidejob]

Mayor Pete has a new job (potentially)...

Joe Biden picks Pete Buttigieg to be transportation secretary | CNN Politics

Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government.

www.cnn.com

Mayor Pete is a Roads Scholar! And a polyglot. (Whenever I think of the word polyglot it makes me think of a platypus for some reason. Also, did everyone besides me know that there is a kind of penguin called the "Macaroni Penguin"?)

 

[wardorican]

Mayor Pete has a new job (potentially)...

Joe Biden picks Pete Buttigieg to be transportation secretary | CNN Politics

Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, the president-elect said in a statement on Tuesday, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government.

www.cnn.com

Biden introduces Buttigieg as Transportation nominee

President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for Transportation secretary from Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday. “I got to know Pete on the campaign trail,&#…

thehill.com

President-elect Joe Biden formally introduced Pete Buttigieg as his nominee for Transportation secretary from Wilmington, Del., on Wednesday.

"I got to know Pete on the campaign trail," Biden said, referring to the 2020 Democratic primary, in which both the president-elect and Buttigieg were rivals for the White House. "One of the smartest people you will ever meet. And one of the most humble. Mayor from the heartland, a management expert, and a policy wonk with a big heart."

Biden praised Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Ind., for his leadership style and new ideas.


"He’s able to walk into any room and leave people inspired with his ability to describe an America that’s the best of us," Biden said.

Buttigieg's Cabinet nomination is a history-making move and adds to the diversity of Biden's Cabinet. Buttigieg would be the first openly gay Senate-confirmed member of a presidential Cabinet if he is installed in the position. Rick Grenell, who served as the acting director of national intelligence from February to May, was the first openly LGBTQ Cabinet secretary.

Additionally, Buttigieg would be the only millennial to serve in Biden's Cabinet.

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Mayor Pete is a Roads Scholar! And a polyglot. (Whenever I think of the word polyglot it makes me think of a platypus for some reason. Also, did everyone besides me know that there is a kind of penguin called the "Macaroni Penguin"?)

Hold on!!! Roads Scholars are what they are looking for in trump appointees, don't put that on Mayor Pete!

 

[wardorican]

Mayor Pete is a Roads Scholar! And a polyglot. (Whenever I think of the word polyglot it makes me think of a platypus for some reason. Also, did everyone besides me know that there is a kind of penguin called the "Macaroni Penguin"?)

Hold on!!! Roads Scholars are what they are looking for in trump appointees, don't put that on Mayor Pete!

I'm going to explain the joke....

Rhodes Scholar. Not Roads. https://www.rhodeshouse.ox.ac.uk/scholarships/the-rhodes-scholarship/

 

[JRad]

I'm going to explain the joke....

I missed it in your original post and I'm glad I missed it in your original post.

 

[insidejob]

So, I've been seeing lots of people seriously upset about Buttigieg getting the Transportation Secretary gig. This article was in a newsletter I get. I understand that he doesn't have any transportation work on his resumé but I think he's probably smart enough to surround himself with people who do. People are complaining that he's only getting the position as a political favor. Well, yeah. That's kind of how politics works. And some people, as demonstrated in the article I linked, are making it a race issue. I think that's really not helpful to the discussion at all. Also, if your going to make it a race issue, I think that's a weak argument anyway. I'd be pretty shocked by someone who thinks the cabinet Biden has put together isn't diverse. I doubt that any president in recent times has had a cabinet with as much diversity as Biden's.

Anyway, I think the most important factor when creating a cabinet is competence, and I think Buttigieg is competent and will be just fine as Transportation Secretary.

 

[GrandAdmiral]

So, I've been seeing lots of people seriously upset about Buttigieg getting the Transportation Secretary gig. This article was in a newsletter I get. I understand that he doesn't have any transportation work on his resumé but I think he's probably smart enough to surround himself with people who do. People are complaining that he's only getting the position as a political favor. Well, yeah. That's kind of how politics works. And some people, as demonstrated in the article I linked, are making it a race issue. I think that's really not helpful to the discussion at all. Also, if your going to make it a race issue, I think that's a weak argument anyway. I'd be pretty shocked by someone who thinks the cabinet Biden has put together isn't diverse. I doubt that any president in recent times has had a cabinet with as much diversity as Biden's.

Anyway, I think the most important factor when creating a cabinet is competence, and I think Buttigieg is competent and will be just fine as Transportation Secretary.

I mean, the guy was a mayor of an urban American city with a major transportation system. I'm sure he knows a little something. They want him with a PhD in transportation administration?

 

[JRad]

So, I've been seeing lots of people seriously upset about Buttigieg getting the Transportation Secretary gig. This article was in a newsletter I get. I understand that he doesn't have any transportation work on his resumé but I think he's probably smart enough to surround himself with people who do. People are complaining that he's only getting the position as a political favor. Well, yeah. That's kind of how politics works. And some people, as demonstrated in the article I linked, are making it a race issue. I think that's really not helpful to the discussion at all. Also, if your going to make it a race issue, I think that's a weak argument anyway. I'd be pretty shocked by someone who thinks the cabinet Biden has put together isn't diverse. I doubt that any president in recent times has had a cabinet with as much diversity as Biden's.

Anyway, I think the most important factor when creating a cabinet is competence, and I think Buttigieg is competent and will be just fine as Transportation Secretary.

Yea, that's pretty dumb - I think the first openly LGBTQ cabinet member qualifies as diverse, even if he is a white dude. (I know you weren't implying otherwise)

Pete is smart enough to be the most competent person in almost any position, whether it be of his own intelligence, or surrounding himself with the right people.

I mean, the guy was a mayor of an urban American city with a major transportation system. I'm sure he knows a little something. They want him with a PhD in transportation administration?

And we would call him doctor if he did?

 

[insidejob]

And we would call him doctor if he did?

Check out the post I just made in the COVID thread with many quotes from a Dr. Paul Alexander PhD who is the "senior advisor to the assistant secretary for COVID-19 pandemic policy." No one is calling him out for not being a doctor even though what he appears to have done to help the administration gaslight the country regarding COVID is criminal, IMO.

 

[cuddlemonkey]

I mean, the guy was a mayor of an urban American city with a major transportation system. I'm sure he knows a little something. They want him with a PhD in transportation administration?

He should be fine. The man was a Rhodes Roads Scholar...

 

[zztop]

Not exactly sure where to put this, but:

DeVos urges career staff to ‘be the resistance’ as Biden takes over

The secretary's remarks come after nearly four years of frequently sparring with the career employees of her department.

www.politico.com

“Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,” DeVos said. “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.”

 

[DJ1BigTymer]

Not exactly sure where to put this, but:

DeVos urges career staff to ‘be the resistance’ as Biden takes over

The secretary's remarks come after nearly four years of frequently sparring with the career employees of her department.

www.politico.com

“Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,” DeVos said. “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.”

After her comments everyone hearing them burst into uncontrollable laughter.

 

[superchuck500]

 

[Taurus]

The sound you'll hear when she's confirmed is Andrew Jackson's head exploding in hell.

 

[insidejob]

God damn that racist, sexist Joe Biden.

 

[J-DONK]

So, I've been seeing lots of people seriously upset about Buttigieg getting the Transportation Secretary gig. This article was in a newsletter I get. I understand that he doesn't have any transportation work on his resumé but I think he's probably smart enough to surround himself with people who do. People are complaining that he's only getting the position as a political favor. Well, yeah. That's kind of how politics works. And some people, as demonstrated in the article I linked, are making it a race issue. I think that's really not helpful to the discussion at all. Also, if your going to make it a race issue, I think that's a weak argument anyway. I'd be pretty shocked by someone who thinks the cabinet Biden has put together isn't diverse. I doubt that any president in recent times has had a cabinet with as much diversity as Biden's.

Anyway, I think the most important factor when creating a cabinet is competence, and I think Buttigieg is competent and will be just fine as Transportation Secretary.

I'm sure most of this has roots in his perceived undeserved comeuppance. This is largely looked at as the payback for bowing out in when Obama called him up. He turned down running OMB before being offered this spot. The dude ran a town half the size of Shreveport. It's a legitimate criticism.

 

[wardorican]

Not exactly sure where to put this, but:

DeVos urges career staff to ‘be the resistance’ as Biden takes over

The secretary's remarks come after nearly four years of frequently sparring with the career employees of her department.

www.politico.com

“Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,” DeVos said. “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.”

 

[wardorican]

I'm sure most of this has roots in his perceived undeserved comeuppance. This is largely looked at the payback for bowing out in when Obama called him up. He turned down running OMB before being offered this spot. The dude ran a town half the size of Shreveport. It's a legitimate criticism.

Sources? Not sure what you're talking about and I can't find anything. But, I don't have a ton of time to look.