...so I guess we'll have to just run things from behind the scenes. -Matt Yglesias

That comment strike anyone else as a little off color?

Looks like Matt is trying to channel John Stewart.

Rahm and Axelrod are going to be far more powerful in this administration than most of the cabinet members.

They ain't chopped liver, by any definition.

Are there other religions other than Jews who keep track of and worry about how many of their religion have cabinet positions in an administration?

Don't the Jews already own all of the positions of power on Wall Street, the Treasury, and the Fed? Aren't Jews at least half of the neo-cons?

As of now, I will not rest until there is equal representation for Rastafarians! You may have Joe LIEberman, but I want a Senator with dreadlocks!

Jews are 1-2% of the population.

Atheists/Agnostics are 10-15% of the population.

Why doe jews deserve lots of appointments, but atheists deserve none?

Why is this important?

What soullite said. And Ezra corrects:
It's not actually the case that Barack Obama is giving us a cabinet without Jewish members. Peter Orszag, son of Reba Orszag, is a member of the tribe. And Director of the Office and Management and Budget is a "cabinet-level" position, in much the same way that the vice presidency is (incidentally, so too is the Director of National Drug Policy, which is absurd). So Orszag will be there representin'.

Don't the Jews already own all of the positions of power on Wall Street, the Treasury, and the Fed?

Well, they did until Bernie Madoff came along!

Can we stop with the quotas, please? It's apparent that Obama is selecting the best/smartest people for each job, which is good enough for me. I do not care about their religion, gender or ethnicity. It seems as though Obama doesn't either, since I'm not seeing any "tokens." Let's keep it that way, huh?

With that being said, I would like to see an openly non-religious person given some high-profile position, but only if they are the best person for the job.

Even if it were true, wouldn't the absence of Jews and the absence of Southerners cancel each other out??

What unbelievably anti-Semetic, bigoted comments from SadOldVet above.

And this whole post is a non-issue. BTW, some Jews are agnostic and atheists.

Jews actually came out stronger for Obama than many other religions.

And the absence of southern Jews is doubly disturbing. Miss Daisy needs a job!

Boy isn't about time that peoples religous affiliations are left out of the process of governing.Sheesh.

Why are we always talking about jewish representation? Jews ae 2% of the population. Athiests are around 10% of the population. How about some athiest representation?

It's hard to engineer conjunction of good picks and getting enough of every possible minority groups you'd please - no point in trying to cover all the bases.

He's saving up for the Supreme Court.

Many Jews are cultural Jews and not religious. As an atheist married to a cultural Jew, I would, like others above, prefer to see religion disappear from our political discourse - save it for church. There should be no invocation and no oath on a bible or other holy book. And churches that preach politics should lose their tax exempt status.

There are also no cabinet level persons with red hair. This is a horrible slight against a historically discrminated-against group. Ever heard the phrase "red-headed step child?" I think signals that Obama is a bigot against red heads.

In other words, who TF cares if there are no Jews or Hindus or purple-skinned people, or residents of Idaho or whatever in his cabinet. Let him pick who he wants for each job and move to the next job. This is a government were creating, not a focus group.

I, for one, thinks-"Who cares?" Unless Matt thinks there are needed to protect Israel, or that they are more competent or maybe , somehow, more entitled. Time to move on Matt! Get over it.
I like nearly eveyone except when they start talking like him.

I understand why diversity is needed within an organization. For instance in the Air Force, and in my work section, we benefit from having personnel of different religions, genders, political persuasions, race, etc...

I do have to wonder though, what the purpose of a diverse Presidential Cabinet is, except for show. Does the Secretary of Housing offer the Secretary of Defense advice based on a Hispanic point of view, etc... ? I was under the impression that the secretaries were pretty much only concerned about their whole programs.

I would think that diversity at the 2nd tier of leaders (Under Secretaries) would be much more important as far as impact on the various policies.

I, for one, am outraged at the utter lack of Albanians in any top slots.

And what about the Basques?

The reaction from 'anti-semetic comments' to my earlier post is a reflection of my reaction to Yglesias and Benen's postings which appear to proclaim that Jews have some special right to have cabinet positions or at least positions of importance in Obama's administration.

For equality purposes, there should at least be 1 Rastafarian in Obama's cabinet - maybe a new cabinet level position of marijuana czar.

You wouldn't by any chance be fishing for some crack about Bernie Madoff having made all the Jewish money evaporate, so they can't pay for a place at the Cabinet table this year, would you?

Tim Geithner is Jewish, right? He's Secretary of Treasury.

It seems Barack Obama is giving us a cabinet with no Jewish members. -- Yglesias

Oy, vey! I guess I'll have to be half-outraged now (my Polish half is pissed off about the Polack-lack, naturally). But count me out for the behind-the-scenes maneuvering; it's so... Cheneyesque... I don't think either half of me could stomach it.

Given all the scuttlebutt that Repubs had been trying to propagate throughout the campaign, it's a wonder Obama is nominating any *Americans*.

"... so I guess we’ll have to just run things from behind the scenes ..." And here I thought this always was a vile, anti-semitic slur!

I think some of the genile readers are missing Matt's point. Us Jews don't exactly get to count the number of Jewish athletes, so we like to count the number of Jewish government officials at various levels. It's either that or Nobel laureates (170 or so depending on how you count).

Us Jews don't exactly get to count the number of Jewish athletes,

Yes we do. It just doesn't take very long.

When I saw the headline about lack of diversity in the Obama cabinet, I hoped it would refer to the appalling number of Ivy Leaguers, middle-of-the-roaders or both. I was hoping yesterday's one sentence tear-in-the-eye toward Howard Dean, who engineered the whole thing and then got shut out of the government, probably at the request of Rahm Emmanuel, would provoke some comment too. Instead we get this.

Somebody thinks No. 2 man in the White House (sorry, Joe) isn't good enough? Personally, I don't care what fill-in-the-blank anybody is as long as they have some concern for the wellbeing of all this country's citizens. Based on the evidence so far, I think it's still a question. Worrying about the sign outside the building one prays in, or whether one prays at all, strikes me as just the slightest bit elitist. Like the cabinet. So what are you worrying about? All the same here.

And to clear up some points from earlier posters, Jews aren't half the neo-cons, they are, or were, most of them, and, of course, mostly Ivy Leaguers too. And if you're going to accuse those you disagree with of anti-Semitism (2:17) or even being Gentile (3:52) you should know how to spell your slurs.

Clearly we'll have to expand the cabinet and Supreme Court to 40 or so members to accommodate diversity.

I'm upset that someone exactly like me is not represented in the cabinet.

I have my own thoughts and opinions and ideas and if they are not exactly represented, they are totally not represented at all.

My feet don't touch the floor when I sit in the airplane seats. So now I don't get representation in the White House.

I am outraged. Outraged I tell you.

I'd be willing to bet there are more gays in the US than there are Jews. Where's our representation on the Cabinet?

Am I the only one who thinks Matt's original post was a joke? Apparently a very dry one, considering how many people seem to be taking it all too seriously...

You've got O'Bama,so that covers the black Irish...

Steve Benen,

Michael Chertoff is Jewish?

I thought he was Turk. Although, there's rumors going around that he said he's Russian.

I guess that's why I thought he was Turk, because he looks like he's from Turkey.

Perhaps a tad OT, but I've often wondered whether "cabinet level" meant that they were "principal officers of the executive departments" as described in the 25 Amendment (see relevant section below). If so, is this list exhaustive?

Section 4. Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.