Locke a lock for Commerce?

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Barack Obama has found his third pick for Commerce Secretary, a post that has resembled the Spinal Tap drummer more than a Cabinet position in the Obama transition. Gary Locke, the former governor of Washington, will soon join the Obama administration in the position vacated by once and present Senator Judd Gregg (R-NH) and Governor Bill Richardson (D-NM):

President Obama is probably going to pick former Washington Gov. Gary Locke for commerce secretary, several senior administration officials told FOX News Monday.

The expected decision comes after the president’s two previous picks bowed out of the running. Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., backed out less than two weeks ago, citing “irresolvable conflicts” with the president’s economic policies. New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson bowed out in January amid an ethics investigation in his state. …

Since leaving office he’s been working for the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on issues involving China, energy and governmental relations. He argues that global engagement is a way to improve China’s human rights record and deal with piracy of intellectual property.

He’ll fit right in with Hillary Clinton on China, then. In fact, he’ll fit in better with the Obama administration than Gregg, who mostly opposed Obama’s economic policies. One big question is whether the White House will still pull the Census from Commerce, or whether a Democrat in the Commerce Secretary position will satisfy the Congressional Black Caucus and the Latino caucus. Locke would certainly serve to eliminate that controversy.

He might stoke another, however. Fox News notes that Obama wanted a quiet, scandal-free appointment after Richardson’s pay-for-play investigation and the tax problems of several high-profile nominees. Locke, though, brings a little baggage that may get a new look in a confirmation hearing:

LET’S SAY YOU’RE Gov. Gary Locke’s brother-in-law. You bunk at the governor’s mansion. You commute to your nearby job as an executive of a private technology firm.

During your two years with the firm, the governor signs a bill giving your company a tax break, personally intervenes in a dispute involving your company, shows up for a party there, and signs a federal loan application for your company, whose founders—your bosses—pay at least two visits to the mansion.

At the same time, your company rakes in millions in state aid, lands a fat state technology contract, and is allowed to use government credit authority to float new loans (an authority illegally granted, as a state auditor’s report will reveal this week).

Are you getting gubernatorial favors that average citizens don’t get?

Naaaw, says the governor.

/snip

Be sure to read the whole thing. At first, I was tempted to agree with Moe Lane that Locke looked like Rahm Emanuel in terms of scandals and brothers-in-law. Now it looks like Locke has a lot more problems than Obama’s chief of staff, who was lucky not to have to face a confirmation hearing.

Can’t anyone in this administration vet potential nominees? Did they really believe that tying themselves to the Clinton China-gate scandal was a smokin’ hot idea?

Hot Air » Blog Archive » Locke a lock for Commerce? Update: Tip of the scandal iceberg

It's getting more obvious daily that Obama doesn't have a tight grip on much of anything other than reading words that someone else writes from teleprompters.