Morning line, Dec. 17, 2008
Obama, Time's (surprise!) newly announced person of the year, will hold a press conference at Chicago's Drake Hotel at 11:45 a.m. Eastern this morning. He is expected to announce the nominations of former Gov. Tom Vilsack (D-Iowa) as Agriculture secretary and Sen. Ken Salazar (D-Colo.) for Interior, according to USA Today. (More after the jump.)
Vilsack supported Hillary Clinton in the primaries after ending his own brief campaign for president but campaigned for Obama in the general election. Some experts expressed concerns to the Times that Vilsack, hailing from a corn-growing state, might be too partial to "a pro-corn, pro-ethanol stance," in the words of Ken Cook, the president of the nonprofit Environmental Working Group, a critic of federal farm subsidies. The Times notes that Vilsack was the chairman of a Council on Foreign Relations task force on climate change, which recommended phasing out subsidies for corn-based ethanol and other mature biofuels. One of Obama and Vilsack's first decisions, according to the Times, will be whether to include in the upcoming stimulus bill subsidies for the ethanol industry that the industry has requested. These requests include more than $50 billion in loan guarantees, according to the Wall Street Journal.
As an aside, Vilsack has worked for Dorsey & Whitney on "strategic counseling and advising clients in the fields of energy conservation, renewable energy and agribusiness development," according to the firm's Web site. He has not, however, registered to lobby in any of these areas. But, in 2007 and 2008, Vilsack was Dorsey & Whitney's sole registered lobbyist for the National Education Association on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, for which the firm received $50,000, according to lobbying reports.
Salazar's most urgent task will be to "remove the influence of politics and ideology from decisions that are best left to science," according to a New York Times editorial, which calls Interior a department "riddled with incompetence and corruption." The Wall Street Journal takes a closer look at Salazar, noting that he has supported offshore drilling, an unpopular position with the left-wing of the Democratic party.
The Bush White House has produced more transition contingency plans than previous administrations, the New York Times reports.
On the fundraising front, we noted yesterday that more than half of Obama's inauguration bundlers haven't donated any of their own money to the inauguration fund, even while raising the bulk of the $9.7 million the PIC has disclosed so far. Also, Politico's Ken Vogel reports on donor fatigue from Obama supporters as he reports on the fragmentation of Obama's once coherent online network.
Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) has been a longstanding informant in the criminal probe of Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, reports CNN.
Following a different FBI probe, the Los Angeles Times forecasts trouble for New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson's nomination to be secretary of Commerce, as a grand jury investigates how one of his contributors received a valuable state contract.
Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Calif.) withdrew his name from consideration to be U.S. trade representative yesterday over concerns that trade was "not even the second or third priority" of the incoming administration, according to an editorial in La Opinion. (Ben Smith has a piece for English speakers.)
Education advocates are "atremble with anticipation" over Obama's pledge of $10 billion for early childhood education, after years of perceived neglect by the Bush administration in favor of a focus on older children, reports the New York Times.
Friends of the Earth, an environmental group with more than 100,000 members, is unhappy with Obama's call for infrastructure projects, including new roads, as part of the potential $1 trilion stimulus package, and has launched a new Web site in response, www.roadtonowhere.org, according to the Washington Times.
Betty Curie, former President Bill Clinton's secretary and a witness in the Monica Lewinsky investigations, is working for the Transition, the New York Times reports. As an aside, the article notes that Currie also is now the keeper of former Clinton White House cat Socks.
