"Joe Lieberman is a terrific person and has the faith and confidence in everyone in the Senate and at the White House, quite frankly," said former White House political director Ron Kaufman.
But Steve Murphy, who served as the campaign manager for former presidential hopeful Dick Gephardt (search), said there could be political repercussions to tapping Lieberman. Even though the senator is a Democrat, members of his party might balk because Connecticut has a Republican governor who would be responsible for picking a replacement should Lieberman leave the Senate.
"I think what matters here is the next homeland security secretary … there shouldn't be any partisanship whatsoever in the choice," Murphy added. "Democrats and Republicans have got to join together to do the job as best we can."
Among the other names that had been circulating for the post before Kerik's selection on Dec. 3 were Joe Allbaugh (search), former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (search), and White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend (search).
But it was still possible that the White House would break the search wide open again rather than return to the previous stable of top contenders, said a senior administration official. THIS FROM FOX NEWS story continues...
Yeah, we need failed Drug Czar and anti-Constitution FREAK Asa Hutchinson as top Security guy, about as much as we need a hole in the head.
this disgraced NYC cop, George "Boy King" Pataki, Asa Hutchinson... this is the best we can do?
We're toast.