# Can anyone name the Cabinet Secretaries with out looking them up?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [September 23, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201 "2007-09-23T15:17:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Off\_the\_Wall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Off_the_Wall)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/1 "2007-09-23T15:17:46Z")
Just wondering how involved we really are:
I think Condi Rice is still there - she’s the Secretary of State
Hell, that’s as far I as I go…!
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/2 "2007-09-23T15:26:28Z")
Rice-State, as mentioned in the OP
Gates-Defense
Chao-Labor
Johanns-formerly Agriculture, but recently resigned to run for Senator from Nebraska
Justice is currently vacant, but might be filled by Mukasey (or something like that)
Don’t remember Veterans’ Affairs, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Transportation, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, or Education. (I think that’s all of them.)
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### Author:  [@zoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoo)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/3 "2007-09-23T15:36:54Z")
Dirk Kempthorne, dept of interior. Only because I met him once years ago.
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### Author:  [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/4 "2007-09-23T15:38:33Z")
Ugh, who would want to? They are mostly inconspicuous, which fits the administration, which prioritizes foreign policy right now over domestic issues (not saying if this is a good or bad thing).
I forget who replaced Norm Mineta at Transportation. I only recall him because he was a Democrat and was from Northern California, near to my old stomping grounds.
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### Author:  [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/5 "2007-09-23T15:39:57Z")
Adding to Cpt Carrot’s list, I know that Chertoff is Sec. of Homeland Security. I knew Rice and Gates and would have known Justice if we had one (previously Gonzales). Past that, I need to plead ignorance.
So, really, I know the ones who make the news.
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### Author:  [@Captain\_Carrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Carrot)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/6 "2007-09-23T15:59:18Z")
[QUOTE=Jophiel]
Adding to Cpt Carrot’s list, I know that Chertoff is Sec. of Homeland Security.
[/QUOTE]
Now, see, that one I knew, but due to people putting his name up as a possible candidate for AG, I vaguely thought he had already been replaced.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/7 "2007-09-23T17:45:49Z")
Polls (even political ones) are IMHO material, not Great Debates.
[/Moderating]
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### Author:  [@percypercy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percypercy)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2007, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/8 "2007-09-23T22:28:20Z")
Education is Spellings. That one’s easy to remember.
-Lil
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### Author:  [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2007, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/9 "2007-09-25T17:02:15Z")
Oh, jeez, I knew most of the first-term Bush Cabinet people by name, because it stuck in my mind for some reason when they were first appointed, but I admit I haven’t kept up. I don’t recall any current secretaries other than those already mentioned above.
Most of them, truth be told, are eminently forgettable. No matter who’s living in the White House.
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### Author:  [@Ignatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignatz)
#### Post date: [September 29, 2007, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-name-the-cabinet-secretaries-with-out-looking-them-up/420201/10 "2007-09-29T13:50:38Z")
No, not even GWB can.