Thursday, December 13, 2012

team of rivals is only cool when it's not the party of lincoln

i've probably brought this up before, but why exactly does conventional wisdom say it is a smart move for a democratic president to appoint a republican to his cabinet, but no one ever expects a republican president to appoint a democrat?

not that i'm absolutely against using someone from he opposite party. it's just strange that the buzzy excitement about cross-party appointments always dissipates when republicans hold the white house.

UPDATE: david wilford cites norman mineta in the comments. i stand corrected. i guess W, at least, did appoint a democrat to his cabinet. i have no memory of any expectation that he should appoint a dem tho. on the other hand, before david mentioned it, i had no memory of norman mineta either.