Following up, I know that Biden really had to find a place for Buttigieg in his administration on two counts: to have an openly LGBT person in his Administration, and as payback for Pete’s dropping out when he did. And I agree that VA really wasn’t a suitable place for him.
So why not Commerce? Commerce has always been thought of as a nothingburger the way Transportation has, because it’s really a grab-bag of more or less unrelated agencies, and you can be Secretary of Commerce, pick some good people to run those agencies, and take all the credit.
Also, Census is under Commerce’s umbrella, and it’s kinda important and newsworthy this year. So that would give Buttigieg some opportunities to grandstand a bit and be in the public eye, which is really what he wants, after all.
Yoiks. I think you seriously overestimate the position’s power to effect climate change policy. That covers a lot of departments.
What would be good and I bet he could get into, is the nation’s crumbling transportation infrastructure. That’s a good thing for the Sec of Transportation to worry about, imho.
No, the whole point of my post was that the power the next Transportation Secretary will have is going to be quite limited. That’s why you need a fucking wonk - to know what seemingly minor changes might actually make a difference, because you AREN’T going to be able to build a high-speed rail network.
Best case is, you might be able to figure out what regulatory obstacles to remove so that if the next Administration has money for that, they can just do it, rather than having to clear out that underbrush themselves.
Climate change policy does cover a lot of departments. But if transportation policy isn’t part of it, really you’re not doing climate change policy, you’re just pretending.
Is Buttigieg not a wonk? Just looking over his Wiki article it seems to me like he is mad smart and he’ll be able to put in the work, assuming SecTrans has some involvement in the day-to-day stuff beyond administration.