Carol Browner

Or is FL not southern?

Various groups want a seat at the proverbial table, but since when are Southerners an unrepresented minority?

Pretty much the cradle of the American Victimization mentality, I'd wager.

Elections, consequences, etc.

Bush and Cheney are both from Texas (sorta). How's that workin'? Anybody for cheese with the whine, and all that?

You know, I'm originally from the south. Was born and raised in the south. Went to college in the south. Got my foot in the legislative door working for a southern legislature. So let me, as a southerner, be the first to say, Screw the South.

We have a branch of government that directly represents the people, and it ain't the president's cabinet.

I'm pretty sure I'd say the same thing if, for example, a president decided to nominate Southerners exclusively. It'd be weird, but that's the president's prerogative.

... a former senior Democratic Hill aide who complained about Obama's "geographic snubbing."

Emphasis on "former." Obviously a Blue Dog and Hillary supporter who is still extremely bitter.

As a lifelong and tenth-generation Southerner and Democract, let me say this:

Attention all Hillarybots and Blue Dogs: You Lost. Sit the Fuck Down and Shut the Fuck Up.

As a southerner, I can assure you that you have no idea how much the south considers itself to be a victimized minority. first, you guys came down here and shot the place up. Then, you made us mingle with other races.

thatguy, I agree. Screw the South.

Or is FL not southern?

Too many yankees in Florida. All them New Yorkers, ya' know.

Maybe Obama can appoint a good ol' Georgian like Julian Bond to something.

Take a look at the election map. The most reactionary parts of the Old Confederacy voted for McCain by large margins. All but one (Texas) of the red states (which also include Alaska and some of the sparsely populated western states) receive more Federal money than they pay in in taxes, yet are constantly whining about "small gov't." If they want to contribute to the Obama administration, perhaps they should consider getting with its program.

Let them secede then.

Hilary Clinton doesn't count because she is not a 'real southerner'.

Bill Richardson doesn't count because, well, New Mexico isn't southern enough: too many hispanics and scientists, I guess. Texas would count, we would presume?

Robert Gates was last Chancellor of... Texas A&M University. Or is he not a 'real southerner' either, having lived in Washington for the last 30 years?

Al Gore is advising the president-elect on environmental policy. Oh, I forget, he's not a 'real southerner' either.

Basically a bunch of whiners. How many Vermonters or Wisconson-ites in the Bush Cabinet?

How many electoral votes did the South give Obama, then?

I notice that one other person has picked up the complaint: Chris Kromm of Facing South. I must say that I'm one of those people who hadn't even noticed this until it was pointed out to me, and I'm perfectly happy with what I've seen of Obama's cabinet picks thus far. But if a well-qualified identifiably southern Democrat is available for a position, it would be a good idea to use her. Why? Because the South remains an opportunity for the Democrats, as VA and NC showed, and part of party-building is convincing aspiring politicos that there's opportunity for advancement in your ranks. It shouldn't trump other considerations [like, er, merit], but a major reason why Democrats have such a thin bench in the present South is precisely their lack of opportunity to obtain wide visibility. Here in Tennessee that's a *huge* problem. Only one officer [the Governor]is elected statewide; the last two Democratic governors were, respectively, a rural West Tennessee pol who'd been Speaker of the House and the Mayor of Nashville. With Republicans how in firm control of the General Assembly, the former path is gone, and the latter path is always a tough sell to rural and suburban voters. It can be a big help here for Obama to use a cabinet appointment to promote a strong, competent [no hacks] southern Democrat.

From the Slave Power to the present the South has had more than its fair share of representation in Washington. Maybe sitting it out for a term in the cabinet is as a good a time as any for rethinking what Southern representing should be looking forward.

My family's from the South and I know all y'all Yankees hate us. I admire your good taste.

BTW: shouldn't that nice young man from Arkansas who headed up FEMA under Clinton have another crack at that gig?

"Representative democracy" does not imply that the representatives will occur in exactly the proportion they do in society. (See: blacks or women) It implies that this is possible.

Southerners are just pissed that we aren't buying their fundamentalist crap anymore. Get over it!

If you don't actually elect any Democrats for significant statewide office, they aren't there to be selected for a high cabinet position, because the govenor's appointments tend to be from his own party. Ditto with not electing people to significant national office. This is how, as a region, you can start to lose power: by being out of step with a national trend.

David in Nashville

You probably make a valid point. And one which my knee jerk to reject it tells me is probably one that cuts close to the bone. THis is a very real problem for the Democrats, but the most senior Democratic politician from Tennessee is... Al Gore.

The US is in economic crisis. Global warming is an emerging and dangerous threat which requires long term international cooperation. Terrorism runs unabated in Afghanistan and Pakistan, threatening US interests and regional stability.

Did I mention 1 million people might lose their jobs in the auto industry, partly due to the efforts of a block of southern Republican senators?

'diversity' is 90s-think. Very Clintonish. This is not a time for 'triangulation'. It's a time to have the right faces in the jobs, and to go forward towards the crises that the US faces.

The right faces mean the right talents, regardless of chromosome pair, skin colour or ethnic origin.

The problem of weak Democratic roots in the classic 'confederacy' states is a very real one, and mirrored with a general problem the Democrats have with the white middle and working classes. A reverse mirror to the one the Republicans have with blacks and hispanics.

But this is the time for bravery and boldness, not balance and political correctness.

Lisa Jackson is slated to become head of EPA.

She is not male.
She is not white.
She is a native of New Orleans, which is in the south.

As the south did not support Obama's election, it would be unsurprising and fully justifiable if the south was not over-represented in the Obama admnistration.

It is time to move NASA operations in Hunstville, Alabama to Flint, Michigan. Oak Ridge, Tenn. operations need to go to Los Alamos, N.M. The Tennessee Valley Authority is an unfair government intrusion in the marketplace and should be sold to a private firm funded by Cerebus that hires rehabilitated felons like Jeff Skilling. All these steps will show Obama is in touch with the sentiments expr3essed by Southern voters.

I am outraged that there are no members of the Obama cabinet from the upper Mississippi Valley North of the Ohio River confluance.

Republicans firmly embrace affirmative action, as to retarded white male southerners, how can we not agree with that?

Sorry, I was too thrilled to finally have a president from a northern, urban area, as opposed to yet another southerner.
They still have a tone of power. I'm sick of victimhood from the most powerful segments of our population--southerners, Christians, etc. You're not victims, get over it.

Anyone know who likely candidates for Labor, Interior, Transportation, Agriculture are? I'd like to see Ed Rendell in there, although anyone who knows about PennDot might not think he's the best person for Transportation.

Wouldn't Obama want the best Southern Democrats to stay in their respective states, to help them turn blue? It is hard enough to swallow Napolitano not challenging McCain for the AZ Senate seat, but to take away capable politicians from North Carolina, Virginia, or other Southern states may hinder the 50-state goal. I thought that was one reason why Webb and Warner were completely out of VP considerations.

As a Chicagoan, I feel underrepresented. I mean, yes, the president-elect is from Chicago, but he's from the South Side and I'm a North Sider. OK, his chief-of-staff-designate is from the North Side, but he lives west of the North Branch of the Chicago River and I live east of the North Branch. The traditional neglect of Chicagoans who live east of Western, west of Halsted, south of Foster and north of Fullerton is shameful and outrageous.

Can we just end this silliness right now and concentrate on something more important, like Blagojevich's hair?

Then I'm guessing they'll be really ticked off when Obama has to auction of the southern states to cover the cost of Republican misrule...

Let's face it most of the south voted for McCain how many smart,competant people can there be there.

Well I for one am tickled pink. If not one southerner is nominated, it will be too many for me. I think the country needs about a twenty year break from southerners in Washington.

Various groups want a seat at the proverbial table, but since when are Southerners an unrepresented minority?

In fact, Southerners are an over-represented minority in recent political history. And that's precisely why they're complaining now: it's the victimization felt by people who were in a position of privilege but are now losing just a little of it.

Is the auctioning off of the south being proposed as part of the Troubled Assets program? Clearly at one time they were bundled and sold to the Republicans as a good investment, but their short term bubble burst. Who would buy them?

"...their short term bubble burst. Who would buy them?" - ricky

Make a fancy presentation package and show it to everyone who voted for McCain/Palin. They'll buy anything! ;)

I can't possibly articulate just how profoundly stupid this is. "Aides" and "people on the Hill" must be in some kind of end-of-the-year contest to see who can come up with the most idiotic thing to bitch about. Well, we have found the winner.

As a Southern, born and bred, I'd like to add my voice to the screw the South chorus.

As long as Obama fills his cabinet with people he feels confident can do the job they're being asked to, while insuring that his vision for the future of the country is being met, I couldn't be happier.

You know who else is under-represented in the new Obama Administration? Zoroastrians.

After the last eight years, and particularly after this latest Presidential campaign, the fact that Southerners feel entitled to anything -- as Southerners -- is amusing.

A long time ago the "real America" used to be a meritocracy.

Don't worry - MSNBC is all over it. Sometimes controversies have to be manufactured. It seems to be one of the few industries we have left, by the way.

Every president since at least Kennedy had a Southerner in the cabinet? Well, back in those days, reactionary Southern Democrats were a powerful force in the party. Not any more. And the only Democrats elected president since JFK/LBJ were southern governers so, duh, they appointed some southerners.

Oh, come on. Do you mean to tell me that there are NO qualified applicants for cabinet positions who are from the South? This is discrimination for sure. Sinister, invidious discrimination on account of accent. Or something.

Affirmative Action for the South!

Hey wait a minute...Wyoming is not represented either. WTF!!! Why does Obama hate the "real" west? There has been a Wyoming flavor in the government for 8 years now, I think we have proven that we can run things ... pretty ...er..well. Nevermind.

Chalk this story to stupid time-wasting high school whining by people with not enough real work to do

The South backed the wrong horse. Again. Now they have finally lost the Civil War and the sentence is to be publicly shunned as the morons they are.

That guy is right - there isn't anyone from the South smart enough to serve in the cabinet.

And that's precisely why they're complaining now: it's the victimization felt by people who were in a position of privilege but are now losing just a little of it.

The southern sense of entitlement.

That guy is right - there isn't anyone from the South smart enough to serve in the cabinet.

Well, I was hoping to see Max Cleland somewhere in this new group, but there isn't a whole lot left to choose from--Zell Miller? Saxby Chamblis? Trent Lott? I mean, seriously, I know they're out there, just not too prominent.
Sam Nunn was an adviser wasn't he? John Edwards? Never mind.

One last thing--my only criteria this time around is that the departments aren't headed by people who seek to destroy the things that they're supposed to protect--labor, the environment, health.
I start from that baseline, geography of the appointments isn't even a factor for me.

As a white, middle-aged Southerner, I am sooooo tired of the Cult of Southern Victimhood (TM). Jeebus.

The idea of "Real America" being Republican is crap. Without the South Bush Sr. would have been the last Republican president. Non-Confederate America did go decisively for Nixon, Reagan and Bush Sr. in 88 (and even Ford when he lost to Carter) but not for George W. If you consider how lopsided the Southern white vote was, you can see what a distorting effect they have had in the last 8 years.

Does Cambridge, MA get to be the "Real America" now?

What were those wacky Southerners up for most of 2007 ? I believe they were trying to convince their country that Obama was a terrorist loving socialist who would destroy this country.

Now they are saying they want and deserve to be part of that destruction ?? Why would anyone even look at the idiots who spend months trying to destroy another mans reputation in order to win an election ? Who wants or needs that in a cabinet that has actual governing to do very shortly.

Lame, lame, lame.

Creating a story out of thin air. Obviously a slow news day.

Sorry, I was too thrilled to finally have a president from a northern, urban area, as opposed to yet another southerner.

Exactly. Better yet, a Midwesterner who might focus the country more on building stuff instead of shifting paper (though the economic team isn't exactly promising in that regard).

The South has been at this if-I-don't-get-it-my-way-you'll-be-sorry thing for a while -- anyone remember the Civil War?

To those of you saying "screw the South", thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you too. I'm just glad you weren't around to advise either Dean or Obama, or that they had more sense than to listen to you. Obama would have made it even without Virginia, North Carolina and Florida but his mandate would have been one hell of a lot slimmer, making it that much harder for him to govern effectively.

As for who he appoints to the cabinet... I don't give a flying duck where his troops are coming from; I'm more interested in where they're gonna go under his leadership.

One of the prime disadvantages of diversity and political correctness is that quality must always be sacrificed for quotas.

I think we'll have to expand the Supreme Court soon to get a Hispanic seat, a Moslem seat, an Evangelical seat, a Hindu seat, an Asian seat (subdivided into Filipino, Chinese, and Korean subseats), six more female seats to even up MF ratio without disturbing the lifelong male seats, a gay seat, a lesbian seat, a new American seat (new American is the latest euphemism for illegal alien), and so forth.

hoipolloi@11.39a beat me to it, suggesting getting James Lee Witt, head of FEMA during the Clinton years - appointed to the same spot. He did a cracker-jack good job at the post.

I assume he's from Arkansas. Is that "southern" enough for you?

What, nobody in the Cabinet from the old Confederate states and territories? . . . Nobody from the white population there - which voted 70% for McCain? . . . Nobody from there when their elected officials are going to fight tooth and nail against Obama's proposals on the Economy and Healthcare (just to name 2?)

Suggestion . . . Let them secede this time.

The Politico are rapidly becoming the assholes we always knew they had the potential to be.

Of the most corrupt states percapita, Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama are in the top ten and the most Southern of all states. My question is: Why are fundimetalist christians so crooked?

"Carol Browner, Or is FL not southern?" Posted by: bakho

It was explained to me once. The Georgia/Florida border is the "Real South", the future North or South of it that you live the more a Yankee you are. So yes, Floridians from Miami are not Southerners.

Chris Matthews showed a very illuminating map after the election, by congressional district (or county?) where there were MORE votes for the Republican than Democrat in 2008 versus 2004. There was a swath of Red through the Appalacians from Arkansas through West Virgina.

I don't think anyone from there should expect they will be represented in an Obama administration.

I'm a Southerner and a Democrat. While I think this is a non-story, the comments demonstrate exactly why many moderate Southerners don't vote for Democrats, and why this election is not likely to be a "realignment" in the way that Roosevelt's election was for the Dems. A party whose members show such disdain for an entire region will never be able to build a lasting majority. Don't forget that over 40% of Southerners voted for Obama and that the region is home to a majority of the country's African Americans. The Dems should be targeting more Southern states and encouraging and aiding Southern progressives, not saying "Screw them."

I've said this before: let's not let them secede, let's MAKE them secede.

To those of you saying "screw the South", thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you too.

Exlibra, don't take it personally. I doubt anyone here would have demanded that Obama NOT appoint someone from the south, it's more of a reaction to this Southern sense of victimhood. Which plays especially bad (for me at least) after Southern Senators killed the compromise on the loan to the automakers.

As southerner and a liberal Democrat---no they are not mutually exclusive---I have a name for you,Artur Davis. Although I would like to see him run for Governor instead.

Deadman--I agree with you.

There's a stereotype that there isn't anyone from the South smart enough to work for him to buy into? Who knew?

"the comments demonstrate exactly why many moderate Southerners don't vote for Democrats"

How do the comments demonstrate that "many moderate Southerners" dont like black people?

"A party whose members show such disdain for an entire region will never be able to build a lasting majority"
I take it that you dont think 1860-1932 (with a few exceptions) counts as "lasting"

"To those of you saying "screw the South", thank you, and a Merry Christmas to you too."

Your very welcome,
Charity isnt giving people what they want, its giving people what they need. Being reminded that not everybody thinks "The South" belongs on a pedistal appears to be what you need

"I'm just glad you weren't around to advise either Dean or Obama, or that they had more sense than to listen to you. Obama would have made it even without Virginia, North Carolina and Florida but his mandate would have been one hell of a lot slimmer, making it that much harder for him to govern effectively."

But.....They did listen to us, No?
We narrowed our primary filed to the 2 candidates least likly to appeal to "The South", listened to the Clinton campaign tell us that she would do better in the "The South" and promply picked Obama.
By ignoring the wishes of "The South" we did well in the southern part of the country and very well in the rest of the country

tomeck, @16:47.

How else can I take it, but personally? I'm in south-west Virginia -- one of the graveyard parts of the country that some of you would like to whistle past (and have, before Dean took over at DNC). It's been hard, slogging, 3yrs for us but we managed to chip away -- Webb replaced Allen for Senator (not perfect but a heck of a lot better all the same) in '06, Mark replaced John (Warner, no relation) this year and, icing on the cake, we helped to elect a Dem president.

But hey, turning the red tide is not enough; we're all bigoted snake-handlers who ought to be kicked out of the union. Isolate us even more -- that's sure to "larn" us...

What really frosts my whiskers is that I'd bet that most of the people who yell "screw the South" are perfectly reasonable when, for example, it comes to seeing that incarceration by the million doesn't help to improve crime prevention -- changing the environment does. But, it takes more work to turn things around than to say "screw it" and throw in the towel.

As for this "Southern sense of victimhood" you (and others) are talking about... Re-read Steve's article; *nobody* felt victimized until Politico dug up two -- unnamed, as usual (the better to make up the content from nothing but thin air) -- "sources". I didn't feel victimized either, until I read some of the comments today. I still don't feel victimized *by Obama* and his appointments; I feel victimized by the mindlessly wide brush with which everyone in the South is being painted. And I'm not even a native Southerner; just a pinko transplant from commie Poland...

"I'm in south-west Virginia -- one of the graveyard parts of the country that some of you would like to whistle past (and have, before Dean took over at DNC)."

What?????
We havent spent every election from 72 till now caving in on our principles to try to appeal to Nascar Dads? I haven’t seen every Dem candidate do a photo op in ridiculous hunting garb toting a shotgun? I haven’t listened to the DLC wring their hands whenever a candidate was pro-union that he/she couldn’t appeal to “working class” voters?

For the record, “50 state strategy” means 50 states, not 11

Also for the record, I have nothing against the south, its “The South” that I cant stand

I haven’t listened to the DLC wring their hands whenever a candidate was pro-union that he/she couldn’t appeal to “working class” voters? -- jefft452, @ 20:11

DLC has been wringing their hands -- and denying us any support -- for *ages*. That's why we loved Dean, who didn't think we were a poor relation or a lost cause. And that's why Terry McAuliffe is a good Gubernatorial prospect only in his own mind. NoVA and SoVA may have their differences on whom we'd rather see in that position (Moran or Deeds), but we're pretty much united on the "no to McAuliffe".

DLC is *not* very popular among VA Dems (Clinton vs Obama was a whole separate issue). That is... Once you accept the fact that VA stretches beyond the DC Beltway.

I hear John Martin is handy.