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| GABBARD: Trump's token Democrat? |
The
reports I read in The Hill, a D.C.-based newspaper focusing on Congress, say
that Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, met Monday with Trump at his offices in New
York.
SPECULATION
AMONGST POLITICAL geeks is that Trump is considering Gabbard for the post of
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. Which may sound impressive (it’s the
post that was held by Adlai Stevenson II during the presidency of John F.
Kennedy).
But
considering that many of the kind of people who made up the bulk of voters for
Trump have their hang-ups about the very existence of the United Nations, this
could easily be an appointment to a post that Trump won’t give the slightest
thought to during his administration.
Besides,
the reality is that the easiest way for a new president to make a gesture of
political bipartisanship is to offer up a cabinet post to one person of the
opposition political party.
It
wouldn’t be something new to Trump, even though I’m fully confident that
The Donald will try to portray this as the ultimate gesture that he’s not the ideological crackpot that many people fear he will become.
The Donald will try to portray this as the ultimate gesture that he’s not the ideological crackpot that many people fear he will become.
SOMETHING
ABOUT GUILT by association with all those people who are crackpots. Who,
according to The Hill, are inclined to favor Gabbard because of her ideological
stances with regards to firearms and refugees and, in particular, a willingness
to be suspicious of people of the Islamic religious faith.
Besides,
Gabbard was one of the people who, back during the primary, was a solid backer
of Bernie Sanders’ presidential aspirations. Which Trump will spin into her
opposition to Hillary Clinton ever becoming president.
Who
knows? She may well wind up fitting in with Camp Trump. Or she may wind up
being isolated into a position of nothingness. We’ll have to wait and see.
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| LaHOOD: The GOPer who backed Obama |
I don’t think she’d be as seriously taken as Ray LaHood. Remember him?
HE
WAS THE Republican picked to serve in the presidential cabinet of Barack Obama.
LaHood wound up serving a few years as head of the Department of
Transportation.
Obama
wound up turning to his home state of Illinois when searching for someone of
the GOP persuasion – LaHood was a Peoria native who had served in Congress both
as a representative and also had been chief of staff to one-time House Minority
Leader Robert Michel.
Of
course, that made him suspicious to the hard-core ideologues who always
suspected Michel of being too weak to stand up to Democrats. LaHood wound up
ending his career in public service by overseeing the nation’s transportation
policy – although his Congress stint is memorable for him being the guy who
presided over the House of Representatives hearings that wound up impeaching
then-President Bill Clinton (the Senate failed to convict him).
Not
that the ideologues ever gave Obama any credit for having LaHood around. The
opposition of people who think that Trump is “taking back” their country were
never the type to credit Obama for anything – and are most anxious to erase his
very presence from electoral politics!
NOT
THAT I expect Trump’s appointment of Gabbard to run into much opposition. For
now, the president-elect will have a majority to back him, and may enjoy the
idea of a Democrat amongst them just to spite the bulk of Democrats. That is,
if Gabbard actually gets the appointment.
I
wouldn’t put it past Trump to toy with the idea of naming a Democrat to a
significant post, build up hopes, then trash them! Trump is exactly the kind
who will want to play with people.
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| Could the Cubs become Trump's team? |
Which also is how I view the speculation that Todd Ricketts, a member of the family that initially feuded with Trump but later helped back his presidential campaign financially, met with Trump to talk about policy.
Ricketts,
of course, is taking joy these days from his family ownership of the Chicago
Cubs, whom whether their owners realize it or not hail from a part of Chicago
that was very inclined to prefer the thought of Hillary Clinton as president –
could developing too close a tie to Trump wind up hurting the ball club?
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