Obama names Gary Locke his new pick for Commerce Secretary
By David Neiwert Wednesday Feb 25, 2009 11:30am
So President Obama went with a safe pick in naming Gary Locke his choice as commerce secretary.
I've known Locke since he was a King County Executive in the 1990s. He was probably the best Exec that King County has ever had -- exceedingly competent. However, Locke was less impressive as a governor; he lacked a lot of the leadership skills we needed on critical issues like the environment and infrastructure.
Still, he's a highly competent bureaucrat, and a capable spokesman for international trade -- which will probably make him an ideal pick for a position like Commerce.
The best thing, from a blogospheric perspective, about the Locke pick: It's going to drive Michelle Malkin crazy. She had what we in the journalistic biz call "a hard-on" for Locke when she was a columnist for the Seattle Times. It got to be a joke, because Locke has always been a squeaky clean guy.
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Michelle Malkin has a hard-on for anyone that doesn't conform to her extremely narrow viewpoint. She's a joke and should go away.
Malkin isn't crazy already?
... Michelle hates her Asian heritage and wants to be one of the white boys.
Her party affiliation then.
http://www.mystudydate.com/pg/kaltura_video/s...
I guess this video was right about the commerce department being made up of Chinese.
Obama picked a Locke?
Thassa gonna raise goppie's ire.
Has he paid his damn taxes????
"he lacked a lot of the leadership skills we needed on critical issues like the environment and infrastructure.
Still, he's a highly competent bureaucrat, and a capable spokesman for international trade -- which will probably make him an ideal pick for a position like Commerce."
I guess my question given the above, how does this man's role jibe with Obama's address last night emphasizing on Infrastructure and domestic manufacturing, given his weaknesses and what will it mean to all of us?
Does Commerce Sect'y fill the order on the spike or does he do what he wants?
Locke was a decent gov. I always thought he cowtowed a little too much to big business (mostly Boeing) but he was OK.
I've met Gov. Locke on a few occasions and despite his stature and position, he always seemed to remember me. Hell, I can't even get that from close relatives.
Commerce is good for Gov. Locke. He's a good fit there and, with his knowledge and connections with China, he'll accomplish great things for Pres. Obama. He was a moderate governor, certainly not the worst but not great. He had to contend with racist bullshit coming out of the backwoods of eastern WA which may have steered him away from a third term.
As for Malkin... anything that gives her heartburn is a plus in my book.
...well, then, he should pass with flying colors.
Any truth to it??
I lived in seattle while Locke was gov. I like him overall. I think his heart was in the right place while he was in office - hell he (or at lease one of his staff) even took the time to respond to a letter from my ex, which frankly, I wouldn't even do at this point =)
Anyway, I was pretty surprised when I saw that Locke was the commerce pick - he had dropped off of the face of the planet, or so I thought, and now suddenly resurfaced as Obama's commerce sec. pick...
First Ron Simms, now Gary Locke? How many former KCE's will be appointed to positions in Obama's cabinent? heh
Locke's crazy!
Don't tell me what I can't do!
...whose main goal seemed to be to avoid controversy and do as little as possible to offend anyone. I've never seen anyone who more completely embodied the notion that the purpose of being elected is to do whatever it takes to get reelected. Susie M. says Locke "lacked a lot of the leadership skills we needed on critical issues like the environment and infrastructure."
I disagree (sort of). He had NO leadership skills whatever. On a whole range of vital issues he was AWOL. To call him wishy-washy would be a huge understatement. I imagine at this point Obama is just looking for someone, anyone, who can get Senate approval. I didn't live in Washington when Locke was King County Executive, so I can't comment on his performance in that job, but I was living in Washington throughout both of his terms as governor and I found him completely worthless. Just one more invertebrate Democrat.
Note: there seems to something about being Washington State governor that sucks the spine out of people. Gregoire has shown zero courage or integrity on tax issues that are dooming the state. The Gates Commission (William Gates Sr.) did a study of Washington State's tax system and came out for a state income tax with simultaneous decreases or elimination of other taxes. Gregoire, like Locke before her, has run away from this issue like it was a leper with the plague. To them, leadership is doing what 50% + 1 of the voters tell them to do.
Flaccid. But maybe he'll do well in this job. He was well taken by the Chinese when he visited there and if he's done anything dodgy at all in his entire life, I'd be shocked.
I totally dig Gary Locke. Now if Obama would just nominate former Governor John Kitzhaber (D-OR) to lead HHS, the Pacific Northwest would have three officials in the cabinet. As blue as we are up here, that's not a bad thing.
a "highly competent bureaucrat"?
There is no such beast.
Nutshell: Locke is thug posing as a democrat. Bluedog, bluedog, bluedog.
Anyone surprised?
How much freedom does this guy have.
Ken Salazar (passing the apres` sex smoke exclusively with rethugs since his first day as senator, betraying all Coloradans who voted for him believing he was an actual dem), has been quietly selling off our public lands to the highest bidder AZ & CO so far and is being met with great resistance by environmental groups (is it even legal to sell our National Park Land to oil and natural gas drillers).
Or is it Obama who is consistently talking out of both sides of his mouth. Actions and words just don't match according to these cabinet people he's bringing on board, all of whom have fucked us in the ass.
Oh Great! Another Obama fiasco in the making!
Now Gary Locke can run the country into the ground like he almost did his two terms as Governor of Washington State. If it were not for a fiscally responsible State Senator named Dino Rossi, that state would be in even worse monetary shape than it is today under current Democratic Gov. Christine Gregoire who has amassed an $8 billion shortfall.
Messiah has also taken Ron Sims of King County out of Washington State's hair for HUD who has done a masterful job of almost bankrupting the state’s most populous county. One more failed nomination, and maybe Ms. Gregoire will be tapped for the O’s administration as well.
Hope springs eternal....maybe the Northwest can get a breather....as these career politicians have picked their constituents' pockets clean.
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