Now that Rahm is in IL and Nancy is out of power. Time for the President

[DFW]

6. At the moment Howard is not interested, but the (re-) election might change things

I've known Howard for quite a while, and although he took the snubbing well, he didn't
forget it either. He'll enthusiastically support Obama's re-election, of course, but he'll
do it from his DFA pulpit and his appearances on the talk shows. His schedule is just as
crazy now as it was when he was DNC chairman, but with somewhat less pressure. He
is still very protective of his private life and his family, and he has had more time for them
in recent times than when he was DNC chair. I'm not going to go into details, that's his
business whether or not to get into that.

Howard will be 63 in November, and although he is still energetic, he has been of the opinion
for some time now that it's time for younger people to take over government. He might-MIGHT-
consider serving in a second Obama administration, but it would be on his terms, and I don't
know if Obama has a post in mind where the two of them would agree to Howard's conditions.

Howard has certainly earned ANY administration post he might want (I'd still love to see him at HHS),
and maybe Obama's people might remember that it was Howard as the tireless DNC head that got
them to their 2008 landslide. But gratitude and pragmatism has not guided their actions to the
degree that it could have/should have--in my opinion, anyway. What might have been the outcome
of the health care fight with Howard as HHS secretary instead of Sibelius (not to mention having kept
Sibelius as Kansas governor)? We'll never know, and it's the country's loss.

Back in early 2009, when Howard was passed over for a post in Obama's administration, I asked him
what he'd do. He said he'd probably take some post in a law firm for a salary in exchange for name
recognition, and spend most of his time raising hell for causes he believed in.

Typical of Howard, he meant what he said, and he's been doing exactly that ever since. It's up to
Obama to lure him away from that if he wants to. I think it would do Obama a world of good, but
he hasn't asked me for my opinion on the subject.