Obama Mastering Politics’ Game of Three-Dimensional Chess (and yes, via bipartisanship)

[babylonsister]

It's not bad, especially if it works. And it's ruining the morale of the gop. :cry:

Obama Mastering Politics’ Game of Three-Dimensional Chess
By Bob Benenson, CQ Staff


President Obama certainly has policy grounds that justify his cross-aisle nomination of New York Republican Rep. John M. McHugh to be secretary of the Army.

McHugh, whose 23rd Congressional District way upstate includes the Army’s vast Fort Drum, is now ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, the culmination of more than 16 years in the House focused heavily on military-related issues.

But it’s hard not to notice that this is the latest in a series of personnel moves by the White House that have strengthened the Democrats’ prospects in future elections.

Although McHugh maintained his strong popularity at home over nine House elections, his district — like most of the Northeast — has trended Democratic for president and gave 52 percent of its 2008 votes to Obama. Democratic strategists say they plan to stage a serious takeover bid in the special election that will occur later this year if McHugh, as expected, is confirmed as Army secretary.

CQ Politics senior reporter Greg Giroux notes that this would almost certainly be the fourth House special election resulting directly from an Obama administration appointment.

The other three involved seats in districts that are safely Democratic: California 32, formerly represented by Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis; Illinois 5, the former political base of White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel; and California 10, still represented by Ellen O. Tauscher , whose appointment to a high-ranking State Department post is pending and expected to be approved.

Then there’s Jon Huntsman Jr., the two-term, 49-year-old governor of Utah. Huntsman was getting some buzz as a potentially attractive candidate for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination, presumably to challenge Obama. Until May 16, that is, when Obama announced that he has nominated Huntsman to be U.S. ambassador to China. Presumably, unless the two men have a huge falling-out, this takes Huntsman out of the mix of White House politics until at least 2016.

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http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000003136738&cpage=1