So, my earlier piece on the U.K.'s new Department of Energy and Climate Change got me thinking about the U.S. cabinet, and that favorite game of politicos everywhere, Let's Name the Cabinet!
Here's how you play. Here are the current U.S. cabinet secretaries:
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates
Attorney General Michael Mukasey
Secretary of the Interior Dirk Kempthorne
Secretary of Agriculture Edward Schafer
Secretary of Commerce Carlos Gutierrez
Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao
Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael Leavitt
Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Steve Preston
Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters
Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman
Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings
Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake
Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff
And the non-secretarial cabinet members:
White House Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten
Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency Stephen Johnson
Director of the Office of Management and Budget Jim Nussle
Director of the National Drug Control Policy John Walters
United States Trade Representative Susan Schwab
If you were asked by the next president to appoint the cabinet, who would you choose to fill these roles, and why?
(You are also allowed to say that you would abolish or change the focus of any of them, because we're assuming that the president and Congress will be won over by your brilliance.)
