Rocking The House

I made the argument for Martin O'Malley to be appointed Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in this space last month, and as far as I know, I was the only one making an argument for him.  Bet that as it may, President-elect Biden has nominated Marcia Fudge, a Democratic congresswoman from Ohio, for that post.

Apparently, Fudge's biggest qualification for the job is that she's been a mayor of a Cleveland suburb, as none of her House committee assignments involve urban issues.  She's on the Agriculture Committee.

Since Robert Weaver, the first Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary and the first black Cabinet member ever, served under Lyndon Johnson, Democratic and Republican administrations alike have occasionally viewed the HUD post as a post for a black Cabinet officer, mainly because white relocation to suburbia has led to the perception of cities as settlements for minority populations in general and black populations in particular.  The United States is the only English-speaking country where "urban" is considered a synonym for "black" ("urban" radio, "urban" issues, "urban" family entertainment, etc.)  But not all white people left the cities, of course.  And even Representative Fudge herself has disparaged the idea of appointing a black person to run HUD in the interest of "diversity."  But, if Biden wanted a black HUD Secretary, he could have done it without plucking someone out of the House of Representatives to get one.  Thanks to progressive calls for defunding the police and the Democrats' own scaredy-cat pandemic campaign strategy, the Democratic majority in the House is hanging by a thread.  Biden has added not just Fudge but also Louisiana Democratic congressman Cedric Richmond to his team, reducing the House Democratic majority to 220 seats - only two more than needed for a majority.  Although the districts Fudge and Richmond will leave behind are safe Democratic districts, the special elections needed to fill them will not occur for months.  

"It's tight," Fudge told Politico.  "Certainly I do think about it because I’m a part of this team, and I support this caucus . . ..  Certainly I'm in a safe district. Whoever would come here would be a part of this team as well so that gives me some comfort. I just have to hope that we can hold together long enough to make sure that something like that would happen if I should leave. Because right now, Cedric [Richmond] is gone and so we’re down one, his seat will be a safe seat as well. So we’re just hopeful that if this works out the way we would like it to -- that it'll be OK."

Politico was not reassured.

Bottom line: Biden should get more Cabinet secretaries not currently in public service.  Getting House members even from safe Democratic districts is counterproductive.  At least he's already avoided the temptation to raid the Senate Democratic caucus, the final number of which remains in doubt until the special elections in Georgia.

And O'Malley?  Maybe he'll be Secretary of Transportation, or at least ambassador to Ireland . . . but it's likely that, barring some sort of appointment from Biden, his political career is definitely over.