Obama appears to be stocking up his Cabinet

TREASURY

Timothy F. Geithner, 47

Birthplace: Brooklyn, N.Y.

Schools: International School, Bangkok, Thailand (high school), Dartmouth (B.A. in government and Asian studies); Johns Hopkins, M.A. in international economics and East Asian studies.

Now: President, Federal Reserve Bank of New York

Personal: Married, two children. Geithner is an amateur photographer and student of Asian languages.

Inside baseball: Geithner (GITE-ner) did not come from Wall Street —- having worked in three presidential administrations —- but he has worked extensively with Wall Street. The AP reported late Saturday that, on Monday, Obama will announce the appointments of Geithner and of former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers to direct the National Economic Council.

COMMERCE

Bill Richardson, 61

Birthplace: Pasadena, Calif.

Schools: Tufts University (B.A. in French and political science, M.A. in international affairs)

Now: Governor, New Mexico, unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination for president.

Personal: Married. Son of a Mexican socialite and a Nicaraguan-born banking executive; spent much of his childhood in Mexico City. He was a talented baseball pitcher in high school and college and at one point hoped to play professional ball.

Inside baseball: Richardson was a Cabinet secretary and U.N. ambassador in the Clinton administration, and he infuriated the Clintons when he bowed out of the 2008 presidential race and endorsed Obama. Obama friend and backer Penny Pritzker was said to be the front-runner for commerce secretary, but she took herself out of contention late last week.

HEALTH & HUMAN SERVICES

Tom Daschle, 60

Birthplace: Aberdeen, S.D.

Schools: South Dakota State (B.A. in political science)

Now: “Special policy adviser” in the Washington office of Alston & Bird after losing his Senate seat to Republican John Thune. Daschle is not a registered lobbyist and has said he does not engage in lobbying, but news accounts and critics have referred to him by that label.

Personal: Married to a Washington lobbyist, three children from previous marriage.

Inside baseball: Linda Daschle has been one of Washington’s most prominent aviation lobbyists, representing both airlines and aircraft builders. She announced last week that she is leaving her firm to set up an independent shop and said she will not be lobbying the government.

ATTORNEY GENERAL

Eric Holder, 57

Birthplace: Bronx, N.Y.

Schools: Columbia University (B.A. in American history), Columbia Law School (J.D.).

Now: Partner in a Washington law firm (clients include the NFL, Chiquita Brands and Merck), co-chairman of the Obama campaign.

Personal: Married to a D.C. physician, three children.

Inside baseball: Holder has been a federal prosecutor, a Superior Court judge in Washington and was deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration. The Volokh Conspiracy blog on Friday dredged up an amicus brief signed by Holder in the landmark Second Amendment case District of Columbia v. Heller. Holder’s brief said that D.C.’s handgun ban was constitutional; the Supreme Court ruled that it was not.

HOMELAND SECURITY

Janet Napolitano, 51

Birthplace: New York, N.Y.

Schools: Santa Clara University (B.A. in political science); University of Virginia law school (J.D.)

Now: Democratic governor, Arizona

Personal: Single. Was a federal prosecutor in Phoenix until 1998, when she was elected state attorney general.

Inside baseball: Napolitano has angered foes of illegal immigration by failing to support the fence along the Mexican border. If you build a 50-foot fence, she is fond of saying, someone will find a 51-foot ladder. As governor, she has maintained steadfastly that border security is the federal government’s job. She may now be taking that on.

NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER

James L. Jones, 64

Birthplace: Kansas City, Mo.

Schools: Georgetown University School of Foreign Service (B.S.); Amphibious Warfare School, National War College.

Now: President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for 21st Century Energy. After 40 years active duty in the Marines, he retired as a four-star general. He was a decorated platoon and company commander in Vietnam. He later headed NATO and was the Marine Corps commandant.

Personal: Married, four children.

Inside baseball: The Washington Post reports that Jones is a longtime friend of John McCain who also quietly provided advice to Obama during the campaign. “One of the few public figures who probably would have been courted for government service regardless of the election’s outcome,” the Post said.

STATE

Hillary Clinton, 61

Birthplace: Chicago

Schools: Wellesley (B.A. in political science); Yale Law (J.D.).

Now: Two-term U.S. senator from New York.

Personal: Married to the former president, one daughter. Was first lady during her husband’s two terms and lost the most closely contested Democratic presidential primary to Obama.

Inside baseball: Clinton is still a junior senator; The New York Times reports that she was unhappy with the fact that she was given no leadership role when she returned from the campaign trail. This may have pushed Clinton toward accepting the secretary of state’s position —- one of the most important in Obama’s administration.

And a likely holdover …

The remaining major Cabinet post is defense secretary. It has been reported that Obama will keep Secretary Robert Gates in the job at least for a period of months. Among his potential successors: Navy Secretary Richard Danzig and Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.).

The holly and the Ivies

New York Times columnist David Brooks last week made note of the Ivy League credentials of many of Obama’s top aides (and Obama himself). “This truly will be an administration that looks like America, or at least that slice of America that got double 800s on their SATs,” he wrote. “If a foreign enemy attacks the United States during the Harvard-Yale game any time over the next four years, we’re screwed.”

Some early reviews:

My primary preference for Obama over Clinton was that I thought his foreign policy judgment had been superior, and I know I wasn’t alone in that respect. For those of us in that boat, this has been a disconcerting turn of events.

—- Matthew Yglesias, thinkprogress.org

Would she bring her old-guard foreign policy adviser types with her to the State Department? … It seems likely that this will discomfit Obama’s foreign policy confidants —- some of whom opposed the Iraq war and argue for a clean break from the Dem establishment foreign policy mind-set that’s held sway for so long.

—- Greg Sargent, talkingpointsmemo.com

About that “team of rivals” thing

Numerous observers last week noted similarities between Obama’s selection of former rivals and Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.” Not so fast, say others:

“The Cabinet dynamics were kind of poisonous,” Matthew Pinsker, a Civil War specialist at Dickinson College, said of Lincoln’s Cabinet. “It’s nothing I think President Obama would want to emulate in his administration.” Pinsker noted in an L.A. Times op-ed last week that of the four political competitors in Lincoln’s Cabinet, three resigned before the end of the first term.

Said historian Douglas Brinkley: “I don’t quite understand the logic here, unless it’s about disarming as many of your enemies as you can. Call me crazy, but if I’m going to make decisions, I want to reward the people who had my backside.”