Bush may have finally gotten it right by nominating Sam Bodman as the new Secretary of Energy.
Sam Bodman is the rarest of quantities: an engineer, a successful executive, and a respected public servant, having served as deputy secretaries of both Commerce and Treasury in the Bush administration.
It’s reported that his nomination will be readily accepted by a Congress which must have received this latest nomination with relief, especially after the Bernard Kerik fiasco.
I am personally gratified as well in a vicarious way: Mr. Bodman was the unknowing instrument of my only success in the rarified atmosphere of senior management politics.
While I was at the MITRE Corporation, I suggested to my boss the CFO/Secretary-Treasurer that he nominate Mr. Bodman to the Board. The Board approved “our” suggestion, fact which my boss reported back to me with good-natured chagrin: it was the first time any of his nominations had been accepted.