JAMES WATT, a little-known Washington bureaucrat from the state of Wyoming, became Secretary of the Interior in 1981.

During his tenure Watt was as high profile as a Secretary of the Interior can be. Many days he was more newsworthy than Alexander Haig or George Shultz, his colleagues at the State Department.

The Department of Interior is usually the drop zone for someone with a modicum of interest in the environment, endangered species, Native American issues, federal lands and the National Park Service. Interior was carved out of the State Department in 1849 when an expanding nation was in need of someone’s undivided attention.

Watt would never have been on Teddy Roosevelt’s short list for the position, as Watt seemed to bristle at the very idea of environmental protection. He showed little interest in protecting endangered species. He supported mining, drilling and logging on federally protected land and even banned the Beach Boys from a 1983 July Fourth concert celebration on the National Mall. He said they attracted an “undesirable element.” The Beach Boys?

Suffice it to say Watt is not mentioned in the pantheon of great Interior secretaries.

Despite all of this I often felt sorry for the guy until he, in describing the makeup of his staff, said, “I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple.” Following that little gem, Watt was forced to resign and President Reagan chose a successor.

Up until that point, however, Watt was the focus of red hot criticism. Given the policies of his department it’s easy to understand why. But, it was often unfair. A Cabinet secretary is chosen to carry out the policies of the president and Watt served his president for three years.

Right or wrong, the policies for which Watt was regularly pilloried were those of the president. Period.

So what is all this gnashing of teeth among Democrats over the recent Cabinet appointments by President-elect Barack Obama? Many Democrats seem genuinely upset by what they view as an emerging center-right Cabinet. Liberals are just plain angry by what they see as an absence of progressives among those selected for the big jobs: Hillary Clinton at State, Robert Gates at Defense, Tim Geithner at Treasury, Eric Holder at Justice, James Jones as National Security Advisor and Rahm Emanuel, Chief of Staff.

Have they forgotten their Constitution? The policies of the next administration will be those of the president, and Obama is doing a masterful job in constructing a powerful team of enormous talent. He has built a muscular race car, with an engine already ignited and ready to move fast when the rubber meets the road, or in this case Pennsylvania Avenue, in 37 days with President Obama behind the wheel.

The question is not whether Obama’s Cabinet members will carry out his directives; that question was answered well before the president-elect would even consider announcing their appointments. The only real question is whether those he selects know how to enact his policies.

This group knows how.

Obama will get us out of Iraq, but he chose his national security team to win in Afghanistan and prepare for the unexpected. Obama will work to turn our economy around, so he nominated a savvy New York Federal Reserve president to get his plan enacted. Obama will say yes to change, but he chose a chief of staff who will be tough enough when the answer is, no. To paraphrase James Carville, let us not forget, “It’s the policies, stupid.”

The Beach Boys?

About the Author

Kevin Blaum's column called "In The Arena" appears each Sunday in The Times Leader.

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