[Arkinsaw]

Why not? The Democrats have been doing this for years. why not fight back a bit instead of rolling over all the time.

The primary requirements for US Department Heads is PR, ability to manage people, familiarity with government, etc.

An academic is going to be lost in all that. From his autobiography he likes erector sets, linear thinking, and working directly with minutiae. I am not sure he is going to be so happy with a Secretary job.

[Army Air Corps]

Basically, his staff will actually do all the work.

[MilspecRob]

Berkeley Lab is a multidisciplinary national laboratory located in Berkeley, California on a hillside directly above the campus of the University of California at Berkeley. The site consists of 76 buildings located on 183 acres, which overlook both the campus and the San Francisco Bay.

The Lab, which conducts unclassified research, employs about 4,300 people, including nearly 1,000 staff scientists, 1,000 undergraduate, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, and more than 1,500 technical and support personnel. In addition, each year the Lab hosts more than 2,000 participating guests.

[AndyJackson]

The primary requirements for US Department Heads is PR, ability to manage people, familiarity with government, etc. An academic is going to be lost in all that.

I am completely an utterly horried at the bigotted ignorance that passes for so-called "conservative" "thought" that takes place on this form.

Your statement is utter horseshine in general, and utter nonsense in this particular case. This excuse for folks rising to high levels who have no knowledge of their business is how our invetsment banks have gone belly up and our auto industry has gone belly up. It is worship of the MBA over folks who have an f'in clue what their business actually is. This monkeyshine only passes in the US and in London, and nowhere else in the industrialized world.

Second, it isn't even true in this case. Chu is a successful director of a national laboratory and not just a bench scientist. The Department of Energy's mission is mostly science and technology. Most of its funds are expended at about 15 single and multi-purpose national laboratories to accomplish a number of missions in energy and nuclear defense. DOE has never had a qualified secretary. Bodman is qualified on paper, but in practice he is the same kind of indecisive do-nothing nonentity that characterizes the entire Bush administration with the exception of Gates, who also has a PhD and actual experience in intelligence and national security affairs, a remarkable exception in an unremarkable administration of 2nd raters.

And, for those who are worried that Chu might gain access to nuclear weapons information, as director of a national laboratory he already has that access. Furthermore, Chu is a natural born citizen qualified to be President of the United States.

The only thing wrong with the Chu appointment is that it took a socialist to appoint someone actually qualified for the job rather than a conservative. It is time for conservatives to spend time contemplating how they got everything so so wrong.