Anonymous sources have Anthony Foxx being chosen to be the replacement for current Secretary Ray LaHood; I don’t particularly expect much from Foxx, but then I didn’t particularly expect much from LaHood, either, which makes it all good. Foxx, for those who don’t remember, is the first-and-won’t-seek-a-second-term Mayor of Charlotte, NC; he’s apparently being ‘rewarded’ for the his work in hosting the 2012 Democratic convention that flipped the state back to full Republican control. Note the use of scare quotes; I’m not exactly sure how this is a step up.
As to Mayor Foxx’s specific qualifications, CNN is remarkably forthright in describing what it clearly considers to be the primary one:
Criticism of Obama’s second-term Cabinet picks arose during Saturday’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner, when comedian Conan O’Brien joked that the president’s hair was “so white, it could be a member of your Cabinet.”
…Oops. I actually meant to link to how the mayor got a new runway installed at the Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, but let’s face it: the Democrats have been really bad at electing African-Americans to anything except mayors/Representatives of rapidly-decaying urban areas. Foxx doesn’t have Detroit or Philadelphia or, God help us, Baltimore hanging over his head; it was him or Cory Booker, and Cory’s going for Senator next year. Sorry to be so blunt about it, but then it’s not my fault that white Democrats typically refuse to vote for black Democrats in statewide races…
Moe Lane (crosspost)