SETTLING DOWN





Kerry's transition team announced that the Secretary of Health and Human Services would be announced on November 22nd. There were three candidates in the running: former Governor Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, Congresswoman Denise Majette of Georgia, and former Governor Howard Dean of Vermont. Kerry wanted Dean nowhere near the cabinet, but he felt that having him there could bolster his credibility among the base after the announcement of a Republican, Susan Collins. There was also a chance that Dean could deny interest in the position which would be a public relations nightmare for Kerry. Ultimately, Kerry opted not to ask Dean in the first place. It was the safer option.Congresswoman Denise Majette wasn't well-known and wasn't exactly a stellar pick, but Jeanne Shaheen had backed Kerry from the start and was seen as a possible rising star in the party. Putting her as Secretary of Health and Human Services would be a demotion from rising star unless she was given the option of moving-up later on. Still, there was a deep personal trust between Kerry and Shaheen and the President-Elect considered that the most important aspect of appointing a cabinet member. With that, Shaheen was asked and once she accepted her nomination was announced at a press conference on November 22nd, the planned date. At the end of the press conference Kerry announced his Secretaries of State and Defense would be named on December 1st.For Secretary of State there were four main contenders: Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, Senator Bob Graham of Florida, former UN Ambassador Richard Holbrooke, and former Senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire. While Bill Richardson, the Governor of New Mexico, received intense media speculation, Kerry wasn't satisfied with having him in the cabinet. Richardson had been considered for Vice President and when Kerry talked with him he said no, but asked to be kept in consideration for Secretary of State. Furthermore, Richardson was committed to his pledge to serve a full term as Governor of New Mexico and it wouldn't be worth the effort to get him to break that pledge. Kerry decided to skip the idea of Richardson all together.The media had latched on to Biden and Holbrooke and the two were the most talked about possibilities, and they were the favorites of the President-Elect, himself. Still, they didn't want their eventual nominee to look like he was decided by the media and so members of the transition team casually dropped the names of Warren Rudman and Bob Graham, who were also being heavily considered. The media loved the idea of Rudman who was a moderate Republican senator and very much well-respected. Kerry wasn't overly-impressed. With December 1st fast approaching he cut the list in half: Joe Biden and Richard Holbrooke.Joe Biden had served in the U.S. Senate since 1973 and was the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from2001 to 2003. He was currently the Ranking Member of the committee and had been the media's go-to pick from the start. The former Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Biden had undeniable experience. His scope of expertise was broad and Kerry would be lucky to have Biden in the Middle East repairing relations with the nations that had been negatively impacted by the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars. In truth, Biden was known for the occasional slip of the tongue, but in reality that wasn't enough to deter Kerry away from the selection. The biggest drawback was that Biden hadn't been with Kerry from the start.This was unlike Richard Holbrooke. Holbrooke had extensive diplomatic experience. He became well-known for brokering the deal which led to the Dayton Peace Accords. On top of that, he was the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and was a front runner for Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, but the president went with Madeleine Albright instead. Holbrooke had been with Kerry from the start and was always considered to be Kerry's choice for Secretary of State. Still, Kerry had a friendship with Joe Biden and decided that Senator Biden should receive the nomination. Biden was announced on December 1st, along with Kerry's choice for Secretary of Defense. Holbrooke would remain a top adviser to Kerry with the possibility of a more formal role in the future, depending on how Kerry's administration went.Filling the position of Secretary of Defense was an equally hard task. Kerry considered a short list of four names: former Senator George Mitchell of Maine, Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, former Senator Gary Hart of Colorado, and Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska. The first off the list was Mitchell, who told Kerry he wasn't interested in the position. The list was brought down to the final three. Kerry wasn't keen on appointing so many incumbent Democratic Senators and that ultimately led to Levin being pushed off the list. With the position down to Hart and Hagel, neither gave Kerry the feeling he wanted and so he asked for the transition team to bring him two more possibilities. They returned with Bob Graham and Joe Lieberman. Lieberman was an interesting choice. The Vice Presidential Nominee from 2000, Lieberman had challenged Kerry for the Democratic Nomination but was never negative on the campaign trail, something Kerry held great respect for. Graham, ironically, had also sought the Democratic Nomination but was never a serious candidate for the nomination. Despite this, Lieberman was a strong supporter of the War in Iraq and that didn't fit with Kerry's current message. In the end, Kerry went with Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, angering Alexis Herman who had hoped Kerry would choose two Democrats for State and Defense.The date for declaring the nominee for Attorney General had been set for December 5th. After the announcement of Hagel and Biden, Kerry had seen his stock increase among the media and the nation with both being praised as sensible picks. The position of Attorney General was also important as they would be the figurehead for how to handle the criminal aspect of the War on Terror. Kerry reduced the short list to three names: Deval Patrick, a Justice Department Official under Bill Clinton, Jennifer Granholm, the Governor of Michigan, and Eliot Spitzer, the Attorney General of New York. After meeting with Spitzer, Kerry was unimpressed and met in-person with both Deval Patrick and Jennifer Granholm. Both were incredibly impressive and Kerry wanted to nominate both. He was undecided and he talked about the possibility of pushing the announcement back to give him more time. The transition team was also divided, and ultimately Kerry came up with the perfect fix. He would appoint Granholm as Attorney General and ask Patrick to seek his seat in the Senate during the special election that was scheduled for May 3, 2005. The plan went off without a hitch with Granholm being announced as Attorney General and Patrick announcing a campaign for U.S. Senate a week before Christmas.Choosing the Secretary of Treasury was an equally-important task. Kerry had one name on the list: New Jersey Senator Jon Corzine. Corzine accepted the nomination and his appointment was announced on December 10th. With the major positions for the cabinet announced, the slightly less-important posts were named later in the month of December. Ted Waitt, the co-founder of Gateway, was named as Secretary of Commerce. Jim Hunt, the former Governor of North Carolina, was named as Kerry's appointment for Secretary of Education. U.S. Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald of California was named as Kerry's choice for Secretary of Transportation. Kerry appointed Dick Gephardt, his former rival from the Democratic Primaries, to the position of Secretary of Labor. Congressman Leonard Boswell of Iowa and Tim Wirth, former Senator from Colorado, were announced as Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of the Interior, respectively. Kerry appointed Lowell Weicker, former U.S. Senator from Connecticut, to head the EPA, and former Senator Max Cleland of Georgia to head the Department of Veterans' Affair. Cleland served in the capacity under Jimmy Carter before it was an official member of the cabinet. Maria Cantwell of Washington became the President-Elect's choice for Secretary of Energy and Gary Hart did win an appointment after all, becoming Kerry's nominee for Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.With the cabinet in place, Kerry started to plan his legislative agenda while speechwriters got to work on the President's inaugural address. Kerry hoped to use the inauguration as a chance to rally the nation and inspire them about the potential for his administration. Vice President-Elect John Edwards was doing interview after interview to drop hints about what America could expect from Kerry's first term, but ultimately it would be John Kerry who would get the final call and his words would be the ones Americans turned to on January 20, 2005.