Transition: Arne Duncan's day
Posted: Tuesday, December 16, 2008 9:17 AM by Mark Murray
Obama is going local for his Education secretary -- Chicago public schools chief Arne Duncan, “who over seven years maintained a positive story line for the troubled district," the Los Angeles Times reports. More: "Since 2001, when Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley plucked Duncan from obscurity to head the country's third-largest school district, Duncan has gained a reputation as a reformer who isn't afraid to rankle the teachers union and punish underperforming schools. His decisions to pay students for good grades, back an unrealized plan for a gay-friendly high school and consider boarding schools often polarized the community while bolstering his renegade image.”
“‘He has the brains, courage, creativity and temperament for the job,’ said former Chicago schools chief Paul Vallas, who hired Duncan as his deputy chief of staff in 1998. ‘And he's very close to the president, which is an important thing too.’ Duncan, who grew up in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood not far from Obama's home, was among the architects of Obama's education policy. The two have been friends for more than a decade, and Duncan was among the group of friends who played basketball with Obama on election day. "
The Washington Post adds that Duncan “graduated from Harvard University, where he was co-captain of the basketball team, and he played professional basketball in Australia from 1987 to 1991. He returned to Chicago to direct the Ariel Education Initiative, which creates educational opportunities for youths on the South Side.”
More on the location of today’s press conference where Obama will announce Duncan as his Education secretary: “Dodge Renaissance Academy was a failing school on Chicago's West Side that the city shuttered in 2002. Duncan reopened the school as an academy where candidates for advanced degrees in education work in the classrooms. Duncan and Obama visited the school three years ago and hailed it as a successful model for teacher residency programs that could be replicated in the toughest schools nationwide.”
And by the way, this is interesting: Bush Education Secretary Margaret Spellings had nothing but praise for Duncan during a visit last week. The Washington Post: "Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who visited a Chicago elementary school last week to highlight Duncan's pay-for-performance program, showered praise on the executive in an interview with The Washington Post last week. Spellings called him ‘a really good school leader.’ ‘I do think he's a reform-oriented school leader who has been a supporter of No Child Left Behind and accountability concepts and teacher quality," she said. "He's a kindred spirit.’”
AFT President Randi Weingarten, the longtime embattled New York City teachers’ union president, was no fan of reform star Joel Klein -- chancellor of New York City Schools. In contrast, Weingarten had praise for Duncan, saying that he's willing to work with unions. Obama adviser Linda Darling-Hammond is viewed as a brilliant professor and researcher, but too traditional establishment. (She's not for teacher pay based on performance, for example. She's for the ambiguous "career ladder" merit pay.)
Salazar doesn't have enviros totally jumping for joy. "Salazar was not the first choice of some environmental groups, who had favored Rep. Raul M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.). A coalition of 141 environmental groups, biologists and other scientists launched an e-mail and letter-writing campaign in support of Grijalva. Grijalva last month compiled a scathing report on what he considered President Bush's environmental legacy on public lands. The list of Bush's missteps mirrored complaints from conservation groups that the administration -- through the Department of Interior -- was damaging the West's resources.”
“Karen Schambach, the California coordinator for the group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, described Salazar as more of a centrist. Still, she expected he would be a ‘sympathetic soul’ in a department that had offered a cold shoulder to the environmental community. “‘The past eight years with the Bush administration have felt like a battle, then it became total despair,’ she said. ‘To have a battle, you have to feel like you were somewhat engaged. We were not.’”
OUR OBAMA CABINET SPECULATION LIST:
NAMED President’s office/staff:
-- Chief of Staff: Rahm Emanuel (Deputies: Jim Messina, Mona Sutphen)
-- Senior Advisers: Valerie Jarrett, Peter Rouse, David Axelrod
-- Political Director: Patrick Gaspard
-- Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs: Phil Schiliro
-- White House Counsel: Greg Craig
-- Press Secretary: Robert Gibbs
-- Communications Director: Ellen Moran (Deputy: Dan Pfeiffer)
-- Director of Scheduling and Advance: Alyssa Mastromonaco
-- Staff Secretary: Lisa Brown
-- Cabinet Secretary: Chris Lu
-- Special Assistant to the President and White House Social Secretary: Desirée Rogers
-- Director, White House Military Office: Louis Caldera
NAMED Vice President’s office/staff:
-- Biden’s Chief of staff: Ron Klain
-- Counselor to the Vice President: Mike Donilon
-- Domestic Policy Advisor to the Vice President: Terrell McSweeny
-- Assistant to the Vice President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Liaison: Evan Ryan
-- Communications Director: Jay Carney
NAMED First Lady’s office/staff:
-- Michelle Obama’s Chief of Staff: Jackie Norris (Deputy: Melissa Winter)
NAMED CABINET MEMBERS:
-- Commerce: Bill Richardson
-- Defense: Robert Gates
-- Energy: Steven Chu
-- HHS: Tom Daschle
-- HUD: Shaun Donovan (NYC housing commissioner)
-- Homeland Security: Janet Napolitano
-- Justice (AG): Eric Holder
-- State: Hillary Clinton (Jim Steinberg-deputy CONFIRMED BY NBC NEWS)
-- Treasury: Tim Geithner
-- Veterans Affairs: Eric Shinseki
POTENTIAL CABINET MEMBERS:
-- Education: Arne Duncan (Chicago public schools superintendent) CONFIRMED BY NBC NEWS
-- Interior: Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO) CONFIRMED BY NBC NEWS
-- Agriculture: Tom Vilsack (said he has not been contacted about the position), Tom Buis (Natl Farmers Union), Charlie Stenholm, Jim Leach, Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, Marshall Matz, John Boyd Jr. (pres, Natl Black Farmers Assn), Rep. John Salazar (CO)
-- Labor: Kathleen Sebelius (asked that her name be removed from consideration from any post), Andy Stern (SEIU) (said not interested), Jennifer Granholm, Richard Gephardt, George Miller, David Bonior (said he’s not interested, suggested: American Rights at Work Executive Director Mary Beth Maxwell), Rep. Xavier Becerra, Linda Chavez-Thompson, Antonio Villaraigosa
-- Transportation: Ed Rendell, Jane Garvey, Mortimer Downey, Earl Blumenauer, Steve Heminger, James Oberstar, Peter DeFazio, Federico Pena, Jeanette Sadik-Khan, Tim Kaine, John Hickenlooper (Denver mayor), Ron Sims (King County (WA) Executive), Doug Foy (Fmr pres, Convservation Law Fndtn), Parris Glendening (Fmr Gov MD)
OTHER POSITIONS:
-- National Economic Council Director: Larry Summers NAMED
-- Council of Economic Advisers: Christina Romer (chair), NAMED, Dan Tarullo, Jacob "Jack" Lew, Jason Furman, Austan Goolsbee, Laura Tyson
-- Economic Recovery Advisory Board: Paul Volcker NAMED, Austan Goolsbee (staff director, chief economist) NAMED, Eric E. Schmidt (Google chairman, CEO)
-- Natl Sec Adviser: Gen. James L. Jones NAMED, (Deputy: Tom Donilon)
-- NSC: Dennis Ross, Tony Lake
-- OMB: Peter Orszag NAMED (Deputy: Rob Nabors NAMED)
-- White House Domestic Policy Council Director: Melody Barnes NAMED (Domestic Policy Council Deputy Director: Heather A. Higginbottom NAMED)
-- UN Ambassador: Susan Rice NAMED
-- EPA: Lisa Jackson (NJ environ commission) CONFIRMED BY NBC NEWS
-- Energy "Czar" reporting to the president: Carol Browner CONFIRMED BY NBC NEWS
-- CIA: Tony Lake, John Brennan (wrote a letter to Obama asking that his name be withdrawn), Chuck Hagel, Michael Hayden, Jami Miscik (fmr CIA dep dir for Intel)
-- DNI: Ret. Adm. Dennis Blair, Tony Lake, John Brennan, Tim Roemer, Rand Beers, Jane Harman, John Abizaid, Evan Bayh
-- FEMA: James Lee Witt
-- FBI: Robert Mueller (term expires 2011)
-- Fed Chair: Ben Bernanke (at least for first year)
-- FDA: Steven Nissen (Cleveland Clinic), Joshua Sharfstein (Baltimore health commissioner), Janet Woodcock (Big Pharma's choice), Susan Wood (GWU occupational and environmental health professor), Diana Zuckerman (president, National Research Center for Women & Families) Joint Chiefs: Michael Mullen (term ends in late 2009, can expect to be appointed for second term, per tradition)
-- Peace Corps: Chris Shays
-- USTR: Xavier Becerra, Cal Dooley (American Chemistry Council president), Daniel K. Tarullo (Georgetown University law professor), Lael Brainard (Brookings Institution vice president), Thomas F. “Mack” McLarty (fmr Clinton White House chief of staff)
-- Auto Czar: Jennifer Granholm
-- Secretary of the Army: Mortimer Downey
-- Chief Technology Officer: Julius Genachowski, Shane Robison (HP), Edward Felten (Princeton)
-- FCC: Jonathan Adelstein (FCC commissioner), Antoinette Bush (Skadden), Karen Kornbluh (Obama’s former Senate policy director), Blair Levin (fmr chief of staff to then-FCC Commissioner Reid Hunt)
