The ideal candidate should:
- Have a military or law enforcement background and be seen as a tough guy
- Actually want the job / not be well past retirement age
- Be someone who can be confirmed without causing a ruckus and costing the president political capital
- Have a good reputation among the public
- Have skills in leading a large bureaucracy
It won't be Zell, it won't be Tancredo, and it definitely won't be that sheriff who makes inmates wear pink panties. Lieberman doesn't fit all of those categories either, but I could see Bush asking him simply because there aren't a lot of people left who do. But I think Lieberman who be intensely pressured by his party to stay in the Senate, and I'm not sure he'd take the job.
Tommy Franks is really the only one I can think of other than Kerik who meets those requirements. But whether or not he'd want the job is a mystery to me. He might want to make some real money in the private sector after all those military years.
Nice deconstruction of the ideal candidate.
But I find it hard to believe only one person ---Franks---exists that fills the bill.