By appointment only

I was thinking yesterday about the fate of politicians who are appointed rather than elected. I mean those people who are put in office by one person or a small number of people, generally from one party or another.

Take Gerald Ford, for instance. He was appointed to be Vice President when Spiro Agnew resigned. Nixon had no clout when he picked Ford so congress told him who they’d ratify. Then he ascended to the presidency when Nixon resigned.

Not a bad president for being thrown into the chaos of post-Watergate, but not electable on his own.

Then I think about Ruth Munson. Ruth was appointed to fill the Illinois Rep seat following the sudden passing of Doug Hoeft. Both were pretty liberal to be called Republicans but Hoeft knew where to draw the line.

Then there is Juan Figueroa, appointed by the Elgin city council to finish the term of Marie Yearman. His appointment was already announced when they figured out Juan wasn’t even a registered voter and thus was ineligible for the post.

No matter. They quickly registered him, took a Mulligan on the appointment, and moved on as if nothing had happened.

Now we have Roland Burris, currently the only African-American U S Senator. He came to the office by the will of one man; ex-governor Rod Blagojevich. Gee, such a potential for a great moment in history, taking the seat of now-President Obama. Instead it had all the pomp and glamour of a fart in church.

Then there was the Caroline Kennedy near-miss. Party bosses opted for someone a little more palatable. Rep Kirsten Gillibrand was chosen to replace Hillary Clinton. But Gillibrand is confusing the Latino activists and anti-illegal alien people as well. We’ll see.

We could talk about Al Franken if you’d like, but Minnesota deserves him!

The latest little tidbit is that Obama has his eye on a new nominee for Secretary of Commerce who just happens to be a U S Senator, Judd Gregg from New Hampshire. His replacement in the Senate is likely to favor the Obama agenda and boost the vote total.

He was scientifically selected by the White House as Commerce Secretary when Obama asked, “Did any Republicans APPROVE Geithner?”

Smithers replied, “Well, sir, there was Judd Gregg of New Hampshire. And nine others.”

What do I find in common about appointees? They are all crowd-pleasers rather than leaders.