Right on the mark about surprises. Exposes the fact that the Trump machine didn’t measure the unintended consequences of selecting Price for the Cabinet. Had they done so, it might have been better to keep Price in the Congress to drive the Obamacare repeal. As it is, Price does not appear to have returned any value as a Cabinet member with primary responsibility for this key issue. They’ve been Ryan-rolled so far, IMO. Watching for further developments, ready to be pleasantly surprised...
I agree with your comments; its one thing to pick someone like Sessions, whose replacement will be another conservative Republican in Alabama, as opposed to Price, whose north Atlanta suburban district Trump carried by one point. Same with Zinke in Montana; it opened up his House seat to a possible loss and makes it a lot less likely that the strongest challenger to Tester in 2018 will run for the Senate in Montana. Not a lot of strategic thinking here that I can see.