Politics | 01/23/2009 10:00 am

Senate Confirms Four Women to Cabinet

By The Staff at wowOwow.com

Let’s hear it for the ladies! Four fine women have been confirmed to their posts in the Obama administration.

The Senate yesterday confirmed Lisa Perez Jackson as Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Nancy Helen Sutley as chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, Susan Rice as ambassador to the United Nations and Mary Schapiro as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of these women undoubtedly will have tough jobs, but perhaps no tougher than that of Schapiro, who has the task of righting all the wrongs done on Wall Street and the financial sector.

But the confirmations weren’t without a bit of drama: Both Jackson and Sutley were held up by Republican opposition earlier this week. Sen. John Barrasso, R-WY, apparently asked that Jackson’s name be taken out of the running out of concern that she will ultimately report to Carol Browner, an unelected, unconfirmed special assistant to Obama on energy and climate policy. There were also ridiculous concerns that Browner’s a socialist. Former Federal Trade Commissioner Christine Varney was also chosen as assistant attorney general for antitrust at the Justice Department. She’s known for her efforts in high-tech and health care and authored an important antitrust opinion, In the Matter of International Conference Interpreters, which dealt with price restraints. She was named one of the "Super Lawyers" of Washington, DC, in 2008.

Also confirmed Thursday were Rep. Ray Lahood, R-IL, for transportation secretary and New York City Housing Commissioner Shaun Donovan as housing secretary. A vote is scheduled Monday to confirm Timothy Geithner as Treasury secretary. The nomination of William J. Lynn for the No. 2 job at the Pentagon, however, has hit a snag. Some lawmakers think he needs an exemption from President Obama’s own new lobbying rules. Lynn is senior vice president in Washington for Raytheon, the nation’s fourth-largest defense contractor, responsible for overseeing overall government lobbying.

So who’s holding down the fort while these guys and gals await confirmation? Bush appointees. FOXNews.com reports on the people in seven agencies who are staying on to keep things running until their replacements come in. At least they’re not out of a job quite yet!

16 Reader Comments (so far…) Sign In or Register to comment

Well I like seeing all this changes. I want to cheer for the women. I just hope they will all do a good job, stand firm on their decision and not follow the crowd, so to speak. I want to see this country go in the right direction.

By Grande Camper on 01/23/2009 10:11 am

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Gotta say: the Republican Party has more than its fair share of knuckle-dragging knotheads—and the current buzz word—socialist—is once again used inappropriately by aforesaid knuckle-dragging knothead from Wyoming. Anyway—Congrats to these women—you deserved better than having to wait while some neanderthal from Wyoming held you up.

By f p on 01/23/2009 10:25 am

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“ridiculous concerns”….is this an example of unbiased reporting? We want to know what the concerns are…we want to know what the facts are…we don’t want to know your opinion embedded in an article that we thought was news.

By Spring Hill on 01/23/2009 10:29 am

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Uh this isn’t a news organization—if you want news, plenty of news papers now have web sites that are free of charge to view.

By f p on 01/23/2009 10:36 am

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Thank you, Frank. This is an area of good conversation, not a wire service. We will say what we wish. Now, how many other Cabinet members are left to approve.

By Diana T on 01/23/2009 11:38 am

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You’re welcome Di—how are you by the way—it’s a balmy 15 degrees here. Stepped outside and thought I was in Palm Springs for a crazy moment lolololol

By f p on 01/23/2009 1:01 pm

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I’m going to take a stroll around the block because it is about 58 outside and is just starting to get cloudy. :)

By Diana T on 01/23/2009 3:06 pm

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I suggest you read Malcolm Gladwell’s book, “Bias”. You sound nasty. Don”t I have the right to question a journalist’s statement about current events? Perhaps we should all believe everything we read, because it’s in print. I probably agree with it…I just don’t know the facts.

By Spring Hill on 01/23/2009 1:30 pm

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Don’t be so defensive —this is not a news sight like the NY TImes—it’s more of a blog in many ways—you’re going to see many conflicting opinions here. And not too many agree all the time.

By f p on 01/23/2009 2:12 pm

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Someone please re-state the info re: William Lynn…. I am having a ‘moment’, and I do not understand the controversy…..

By Patty E on 01/23/2009 1:04 pm

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patty, obama already announced restrictions on the revolving door between government and lobbying. the question is whether the guy in charge of raytheon’s lobbying effort violates obama’s new rules separating government from lobbists.

By mary lou s on 01/23/2009 2:34 pm

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Thank you for connecting the dots for me…….now I understand. If the guy wants the job with Obama, he needs to resign the Raytheon job—-simple! didn;t someone tell him that? If not….there was a boo-boo. The Raytheon lobbyists no doubt go after members of Congress—-and until Congress votes an anti-lobby gift rule, as Obama mandated for his senior staff….they can still lobby the same old way ……do you think this would be a perfect time for Congress to correct itself? In the name of Ethics and Integrity? then maybe Raytheon lobbyists won;t be that much of a conflict for this guy…. Oh how tangled these webs become….

By Patty E on 01/23/2009 4:30 pm

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I remember when that came out—wow—I needed that kick to remember -it was the reason 2 GOP congress old-timers retired early—-before the law kicked in…

By Patty E on 01/23/2009 7:40 pm

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we seem to be entering a time when top government appointments reflect expertise and character rather than whether the appointees are middle aged rich white males with lucky genes and rolodexes.

By mary lou s on 01/23/2009 2:36 pm

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Dear Wow Ladies: WE WON A SPECIAL HARD FOUGHT VICTORY JAN. 9th ! We now have legistlation that needs to be signed by Obama allowing us time to discover unequal pay and then turn around and pursue legal correction when we are discriminated against ! We now have another Bush barrier removed so we can achieve equality when it is denied us. Mitch McConnelll voted against women being able to have a reasonable ltime span to discover unequal pay and file a lawsuit stating- we don’t need more lawsuits at this time. Is he saying it is okay to make it impossible for women to sue for ( illlegal) discrimination levied against them? Should we stop trials for bank robbers, murderers and other criminals and law breakers because we have a financial crisis? It is okay to break the law against women is basically what he is saying because we don’t want to be bothered with their petty issues during this time of crisis. However, women are barely hanging on to the edge being the poorest of the poor because of enequal pay and discrimination. If this country wants to stimulate the economy- let us enforce the laws that deny women equal and fair pay for their labor. This fair pay law FINALLY passed after being voted down several times! We all need to know our rights and when they are being denied to us and the barring of justice toward a separate distinct class of people- women by such rediculously outlandish requirements. This is a time to celebrate, even though it is so obvious that this never should have occurred in the first place and the previous supreme court ruling was so blatently impossible to comply with to be able to even get a trial —just outright wrong! We are now becoming a country of equality for all. We still have a long way to go. We need to highlight the importance of this. The courts are the only place these issues can be resolved and if we are barred from suing for equality what other avenue do we have left to correct these wrongs? Women had been basically denied access to the courts to fight for their constiutional rights. The courst have now been opened back up to us. And if the corporations paid women equally- we wouldn’t need to sue. Lets clean up and kick out these greedy, corrup CEOs. that are behind so much of the law breaking destruction in this country and the world.

By Kay Sara on 01/25/2009 4:56 am