Obama Plans To Pick Republicans For Cabinet

Times Online:

AS Barack Obama enters the final stages of the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination, he is preparing to detach the core voters of John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, with the same ruthless determination with which he has peeled off Hillary Clinton's supporters.

The scene is set for a tussle between the two candidates for the support of some of the sharpest and most independent minds in politics. Obama is hoping to appoint cross-party figures to his cabinet such as Chuck Hagel, the Republican senator for Nebraska and an opponent of the Iraq war, and Richard Lugar, leader of the Republicans on the Senate foreign relations committee.

Read the whole story: Times Online

Comments

[johnmorgan]

Do the Republicans ever share power? No!

Obama should not appoint Republicans. We need to get as far as possible from their bloodthirsty politics.

[nellie]

Hagel has spoken out against the war, often and unambiguously.

[Mattie]

sorry, I like Chuck Hagel, for a republican he seems like an ok guy. Last week on Late Edition, he said that we weren't winning in Iraq, and things weren't getting better. Doesn't sound like a typical republican to me.

[Birdman]

Although it might be considered admirable that Obama would include repigs, but I say no they do not deserve anyplace in government. Repigs have proven beyond a shadow of doubt that they are not to be trusted are incapable of ethical behavior they should never be trusted again with any position within our govenment not even dog catcher.

[RogerHWerner]

I'd say make room for conservatives but to Hell with Republicans. Hopefully, after November they will have completed their self destruction; probably too much to hope for but one could hope.

[Beelzebul]

HuffPo's 897th new and improved version still sucks. I'll see what its like in another 3, 4, or 5 days. Back to the bars and broads for me.

[speakingtruth2power]

Here is a great suggestion!

Everybody scroll down and

flag swaggie for every post

then refresh and repeat!!!!

[letsgetsmart]

William Cohen might have been the last republican that anyone sane could think of trusting in a dem cabinet. For the life of me, I can't think of a single republican from todays litter that even comes close. Back then there might have been a few but even Powell soured and helped Bush. If any of you can think of one, list them. My main concern with Obama is that he will open the door to turn coats and the republicans will spend his first few years disrupting. We haven't had a whole lot of legislation for the masses so we need to get busy day one. Hillary got that right big time. Lets clean up the mess before we start nice guy experiments. Even if the dems control everything and 61 votes in the senate, we still have the court that will declare everything not republican as unconstitutional. Don't you think that republicans should have acted like good people instead of lock step automatons on their own watch? Why do a few with a conscience need to wait to get into a dem cabinet to act as an independent thinker? None of them have earned the right to these cabinet positions. If you have been saluting the Bush flag for seven years we absolutely don't need to hear from you now.

[RogerHWerner]

Considering Hagel's association with ES&E the electronic voting machine company, and his failure to disclose his association during his Senatorial campaign, I would think this fellow would be an odd choice for any cabinet post. Still, appointing conservatives to a roll in government isn't a bad idea for any Democratic administration but it needs to be done with a great deal of thoughtfulness.

[nellie]

I forgot about the voting machine thing. That was not good.

[johnmorgan]

Oh my God. You don't play nicey-nicey with the Republicans. That's not how they play the game, and Obama should not grant them any power once he's in office. He'd be a fool to appoint any Republicans.

[Sisyphuss]

As long as you play by the rules of your opponent, you'll always lose.

[Beelzebul]

One of the arguments made against Hillary by Barack supporters is she's too much like the Republicans. Now that Barack has stated he'd solicit Republicans for cabinet positions, his supporters see that as a good bi-partisan move. A move of unity. A way of bringing the country together.

If Hillary had announced the same, she'd been called a "fat-assed republican whore" among other things by Barack supporters.

[nellie]

It would depend on who she named. If she named Boehner, yeah. But if she said someone like Hagel, the reaction would probably be the same. I'm not wild about Lugar. Hope Obama changes his mind on that one.

[RogerHWerner]

If I read the article correctly, Obama said Americans deserve to have the best minds in government. I don't find this an especially onerous notion and considering the difficulties we're going to have in the future it's probably a good idea to surround yourself with something other than sycophants. I would prefer if no Democrat gave any Republican who enabled Bush the time of day let alone a cabinet position.

[HumeSkeptic]

Ooops!
I'm on the wrong thread. Looks like this one is about Thalia and her hatred of Obama supporters.

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

And I made a joke you would have hated in the earlier "I couldn't post" lead story regarding the SNL thing.

Someone asked how many of her last surviving base (obviously referring to old folks) would be awake to see it?

And I responded:

"way more than your typical over the top Obama supporter who at that time of the night is smoking crack, stealing cars and knocking off 7/11's"

Funny stuff ... huh?

.

[HumeSkeptic]

lol

[SupremeIdiot]

Why?

[Superbus]

To give Florida dems a vote, that's why.

[SupremeIdiot]

Huh?

[HumeSkeptic]

To gain a few Republican votes. First bad move by Obama, as far as I'm concerned, and unnecessarily premature.

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

.

So ... the key now to a successful Huffy experience is to stay off the lead story?

Quite an accomplishment ...

.

[BeyondGoodAndEvil]

I know. How lame is that. This site is going downhill fast.

[primordialsoup]

It's been that way since the beginning. It's only getting popular, as far as I can tell.

[JackSlappyNotYourPappy]

But ya know "All comments are moderated by 15 real-humans 24/7" ...

LOFL

[Dragon5616]

GrouchoMarxist -- Secretary of Sarcasm

[factotem]

This is why Republicans laugh at Democrats and why Obama is a sap. The GOP gave Dems NOTHING for 8 years, but Dems value fairness, and hand over authority like little bitches.

[Dragon5616]

factotem -- Secretary of Trolls

[kevenhussienseven]

No.

Undersecretary of pea-brained trolls.

[slr51]

I guess you must be talking about Bill Clinton's REPUBLICAN secretary of defense - right?

William Cohen - Republican Senator from Maine

... is THAT why Republicans laugh at Democrats?

[IMustKnow]

William Cohen did a decent job and was not a neocon. What is your point? Obamabots set about thinking this is something Obama thought up all by himself....just another thing he has stolen. BTW, we can't trust him since it is republicans that have helped him get as far as he has in the nomination process.

[richardsgirl]

You're absolutely right! If the Republicans gave nothing, then the Democrats should act in turn and give nothing ... and ultimately, the American people will get NOTHING!!! Tit for Tat is for kids. We shoud never use the Republican Party as our standard for governing. Their blind loyalty to party politics has served to polarize our country and to stagnate our congress, but has done very little to serve the American people and our interests abroad. We can still uphold our Democratic ideals even as we think beyond party politics. What you are suggesting is status quo, and this is exactly what Senator Obama seeks to change.

[Sisyphuss]

Right on.

[nellie]

Taking on the Republican attitude and "giving nothing" IS Tit for Tat. And I agree, it accomplishes nothing. The problem with the Republican Party right now is that it's being run by neocons. The entire party is not made up of these people. Even the entire Republican congress is not made up of these people. The Republican party has to purge itself of this nasty and corrupt group—just as the Democratic party has to purge itself of a few choice klunkers. We tried to get rid of Lieberman, but no luck But we tried.

And the fact is, it's more important to get a majority House and Senate that anything else. The cabinet answers to the president. If they screw up, they're out. Congress is another story.

[Dragon5616]

Mark Penn -- Secretary of Incompetence

[kevenhussienseven]

I think the man could be drilled for enough oil to keep LA's cars running for a week....

[NotWaldo]

Monica Lewinsky, Head Intern.

[primordialsoup]

Secretary of Cigars.

[Bushgirlsgonewild]

.

Larry Craig, Secretary of the Interior.
.

[Dragon5616]

Larry Craig -- Solicitor General