Democratic Dream Team: Part Three of Five

Democratic Dream Team: Part Three of Five
The top Democratic contenders for the positions of Secretary of Homeland Labor, Secretary of Veterans' Affairs, and Secretary of Commerce.
by John Drexel

Part Two of a five-part series. Click here for Part One.
Click here for Part Two.

Secretary of Labor:
Dick Gephardt was long considered to be a man with aspirations- and potential- for national office. He worked his way up slowly. Having first won his congressional seat in Missouri in 1976, he waited six terms to capture his first party leadership seat. He ran an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination for the White House in 1988, but parlayed his new-found national name recognition into party political office. When he became Majority Leader in 1989, he was at the forefront of national politics. Six years later, the GOP swept into Congress in the "Republican Revolution," successfully unseating Democratic Speaker Tom Foley, the only Democrat who ranked above the Missouri Congressman at the time. From 1995 until 2003, Gephardt was the most prominent Democrat in the House. After Democrats lost seats in the 2002 midterm elections, he passed the torch to Nancy Pelosi and announced his candidacy for the presidency shortly thereafter. Despite a strong early showing, Gephardt failed to get out of the starting blocks, and floundered along with his chief rival for the nomination, Howard Dean.

Throughout the '90s, Dick Gephardt was the face of congressional Democrats. But more importantly, he was the most staunch advocate of organized labor that Congress had seen in years. Along with Minority Whip David Bonior, Gephardt made labor and fair trade a chief focus of the Democratic platform during his tenure.
The Clinton White House made free trade, particularly NAFTA, a top priority, drawing the ire of a number of organized labor groups. However, the Democratic agenda in 2008 has shifted strongly away from free trade, with both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama professing to advocate for fair trade practices if elected. For that reason, Gephardt would be the man to lead the charge.

But with Gephardt's endorsement of Clinton, it may be unlikely that Obama would tap the former Majority Leader for the job. In that case, Bonior- who spent the last year effectively running John Edwards' campaign- would make an equally strong case for the position.

Secretary of Veterans' Affairs:
There aren't many people who don't like Donna Shalala. During her tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services under President Clinton, she developed a reputation as an easy person to get along with and a fiercely effective Cabinet member.

In 2007, when it became apparent that veterans were being subjected to squalid conditions at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, D.C., President Bush tapped Shalala, along with former GOP presidential candidate Bob Dole, to chair a bipartisan commission to address medical care for veterans returning from service oversees. Their recommendations were well-received, and many of the implemented immediately.

Her experience there, along with her tenure as Secretary of Health and Human Services (she was the only original member of Clinton's cabinet still in office when Clinton left in 2000), make Donna Shalala perfect for the job. The one caveat is that Veterans' Affairs would be considered a step down from her previous position. But Shalala has spent the last 7 years at the University of Miami, where she's had a bit of a rough going. If she's interested in returning to national politics, she'd likely replicate the success that she had during the Clinton years.

If Shalala couldn't be persuaded to take the job, Max Cleland, the Vietnam veteran who became a triple amputee during his military service in Vietnam. Cleland served as a Senator fro Georgia from 1997 to 2002, and was an ally for veterans and the disabled. There is perhaps no one who is as sensitive to the needs of our servicemen than Cleland. Both he and Shalala would be qualified to hold the post.

Secretary of Commerce:
The mission of the Department of Commerce, as defined by the agency itself, is "to foster, promote, and develop the foreign and domestic commerce." That said, we can think of no better person to lead the department than Mayor Shirley Franklin of Atlanta.

Franklin has put together an impressive resume since taking a seat behind the Mayor's desk in 2002, turning a lagging urban metropolis into a booming economic haven. Her pro-growth policies have led to a resurgence of commerce in Atlanta not only for small businesses, but for big business as well. And labor has benefited as well; her efforts have brought countless thousands of jobs to Atlanta and the surrounding Georgian suburbs. In her first few years in office, she gained praise both statewide and nationally for turning around one of the country's worst water and sewer systems to head off federal fines that were bogging down the city's budget, which was already facing a daunting deficit.

In 2006, Franklin led a delegation of city and local officials to China, where she lobbied to secure an airline route to one of the fastest growing economies in the world for Delta Airlines- which has it’s main hub in Atlanta. She’s also proven instrumental in assisting Delta to open routes to cities in Europe, like Copenhagen and Dusseldorf. Her diplomatic efforts have brought hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue to the city and created economic opportunity for its citizens.

Add some of her other stats like a sharp decrease in homelessness during her tenure, and there is no denying that Shirley Franklin is one of the most qualified leaders in the Democratic pool, particularly with respect to the nation’s commercial interests.

The icing on the cake is that Franklin, who earned her stripes working at City Hall during Andrew Young's time in office, is very popular, having won her reelection bid handily in 2006. And she's getting more popular in the Democratic sphere in particular: she received the prestigious "Profiles in Courage Award" from the John F. Kennedy Library in 2005.

There is almost no reason not to choose Franklin for this, or at least some other post in the next Democratic administration. She'll be a top contender whether Obama or Clinton come out on top.