A Rocket Scientist In The Cabinet, And More Czars

Reuters is reporting, and this column can confirm, that President-elect Barack Obama plans to nominate Nobel laureate Steven Chu to be his Secretary of Energy. If nominated, a real rocket scientist would be in charge of the energy portfolio -- imagine that. I believe that he'd be the first scientist to head a major executive branch department since the 1970s.   And he's sort of two scientists in one, trained as a molecular biochemist and as a physicist, comfortable writing papers about RNA transcription and Bose-Einstein condensates. Dr. Chu is untainted by Washington's caution on climate change, which thrills energy transformation advocates. Speaking of collective excitation of condensed groups, the left loves him. (Chris Bowers does, at least.)  Obama also plans to appoint Clinton era EPA secretary Carol Browner to a White House staff coordination post, Lisa Jackson of New Jersey to be his EPA head (who knows more about environmental degradation that someone from New Jersey) and Nancy Sutley of California to be his CEQ director. Thursday, Obama plans to formalize the nomination announcement of Tom Daschle to be secretary of Health and Human Services.

Now -- consider for a moment the troika of Daschle, Browner and Larry Summers. Obama either seems to want to balance a strong cabinet with a very strong White House staff, or he is interested in completely transforming the White House policy process. Generally, a domestic policy council coordinates policy, with the head of that policy council being the principal domestic policy adviser. But Obama is bringing in Tom Daschle to coordinate the health care portfolio, Carol Browner to coordinate energy transformation and the environment and Larry Summers to coordinate economic recovery. These positions will probably become equivalent in function to their respective policy areas as national security adviser's role in national security. This is either a recipe for  an astounding dish -- Obama as Joel Robuchon -- or a mishmash of chaos and confusion -- Obama as Rocco DiSpirito.

One other transition note: VP-elect Joe Biden will have breakfast tomorrow morning with Sen. Hillary Clinton and Jim Jones. (Look, they're all getting along. Seriously, really. They are. Biden and Clinton met for two productive, private hours earlier this week.)