Well, i guess there won't be too many "yes" men in Obama's cabinet
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/12/04/news/transition.phpCHICAGO: At some point during the long series of Democratic debates last year, Bill Richardson came to realize he was not exactly the center of attention. Most of the questions were going to the star candidates, and he began tuning out.
So when a moderator turned to him with a question while he was not listening, Richardson panicked - until the candidate next to him saved him.
"Katrina!" Barack Obama whispered. "Katrina!" Richardson launched into his spiel on the hurricane that ravaged New Orleans. "He could have thrown me under the bus," he later recalled, "but he stood behind me."
Obama stood with him again on Wednesday as he announced that he would make Richardson secretary of commerce.
It has been a tumultuous journey for Richardson to this point, from the nation's most prominent Hispanic leader to an afterthought on the presidential campaign trail, from a target of the angry Clinton camp to the cabinet of the winner. His destination proved not to be the presidency, as he had hoped, nor the vice presidency or even secretary of state. But Obama said it was not a consolation prize, either.
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"Well, commerce secretary is a pretty good job, you know," he said with Richardson beside him on Wednesday. "It's a member of my key economic team that is going to be dealing with the most significant issue that America faces right now, and that is how do we put people back to work and rejuvenate the economy."
Richardson is the third person who lost to Obama in the Democratic primaries to join the nascent administration, after Senator Joseph Biden Jr., the vice president-elect, and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, tapped for secretary of state. It could get a little uncomfortable in the Cabinet Room when Richardson looks across the table at Clinton, whose husband appointed him to high office only to see him endorse Obama instead of her last spring.
In the end, though, she got the job that he badly wanted, so she can afford to move on. Certainly, Richardson sounded ready to do so on Wednesday. "There are some who speak of a team of rivals," he said. "But I've never seen it that way. Past competitors, yes. But 'rivals' implies something harder edged and less forgiving."
Richardson's path to the Obama cabinet has been long and winding.
After being elected to the House in 1982, he earned a reputation as a diplomatic troubleshooter parachuting into danger zones to rescue hostages or negotiate deals. President Bill Clinton gave him two cabinet posts, ambassador to the United Nations and later secretary of energy. Richardson then went home to win the governorship of New Mexico.
Along the way, he became known for a gregarious energy as well as a taste for the limelight. After leaving the cabinet, he lined up 23 paying appearances, many of them corporate, and when he ran for governor, he set a Guinness Book world record by shaking 13,392 hands in eight hours. In his memoir, he agreed with the 1992 Almanac of American Politics, which called him "an ambitious and often pushy politician who has sometimes taken impolitic stands for no apparent reason except the conviction that they were right." George magazine, less kindly, ranked him a top-10 "publicity hound."
Richardson's tenure at the Energy Department was marred by reports of security lapses in nuclear laboratories. During one contentious hearing, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia told him "you would never again receive the support of the Senate of the United States for any office to which you might be appointed."
Al Gore passed him over for vice president in 2000. After dropping out as a presidential candidate - his campaign went nowhere - Richardson grew a beard, the same act of defiance Gore chose after his own razor-thin loss in 2000. As Richardson decided whom to endorse, the Clinton camp believed he was holding out for a promise of appointment as secretary of state. When he went for Obama, James Carville, the Clinton adviser, compared him to Judas.
Richardson denied any crass motives, writing in The Washington Post that he backed Obama because "he has the judgment, temperament and background to bridge our divisions as a nation." He denounced the "political venom" of Carville.
Hispanic leaders lobbied on behalf of Richardson, 61, arguing that Hispanic voters were a vital part of the winning coalition. During their appearance Wednesday, Obama said he had picked Richardson because of his deep experience, not his ethnic heritage, but vowed to produce a diverse team. He has his eye on Representative Xavier Becerra of California for U.S. trade representative.
"I think people are going to say this is one of the most diverse cabinets and White House staffs of all time," Obama said. "But more importantly, they're going to say these are all people of outstanding qualifications and excellence."
