President-elect Barack Obama earns praise from across the blogosphere for tapping retired Gen. Eric Shinseki as Veterans Affairs secretary. But blogger reaction to the possibility of Sen. Caroline Kennedy (D-N.Y.) is mixed.
Choosing Shinseki, the general who publicly contradicted the Bush administration plan to use a relatively small troop force to occupy Iraq, means “karmic justice” for his detractors, writes James Fallows. The personal courage of Shinseki, who ended his military career by disagreeing with civilian leaders, is unparalleled, writes Spencer Ackerman. No other single Cabinet appointment sends a louder message to the current administration, writes Taylor Marsh.
Centrist and mainstream media pundits like the pick, too. Shinseki, who called for several hundred thousand U.S. troops in Iraq, was a logistics guy who got it right, according to Marc Ambinder. Shinseki is a good fit for the VA post since he’s a “soldier’s soldier” who has received two Purple Hearts and knows the mental and physical sacrifices made during war, writes The Moderate Voice’s Dorian de Wind. Townhall’s Carol Platt Liebau throws a little cold water on Shinseki story, noting that no one forced him out of the military.
Appointing Kennedy to fill Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-N.Y.) seat is a “truly terrible idea,” since she wasn’t much of a liberal leader when Republicans were in power and since there’s no way to tell if she can take the heat as an elected official, writes Firedoglake’s Jane Hamsher. Though Hamsher’s criticism is largely valid, she’s being selective in questioning Kennedy’s qualifications for a job that has easy-to-meet minimum requirements, writes QandO’s McQ.
FROM THE BLOGS:
OTHER NEWS SOURCES:
Obama: Economy ‘A Big Problem and It’s Going to Get Worse’ – AP
Obama Formally Taps Shinseki for Cabinet – The Hill