Our friends in countries with parliaments have what are known as shadow cabinets, in which the party out of power chooses certain of its members to speak for the opposition on various issues and ministries/departments.
Do we need something like this? If so, who? Ideas below the fold...
Leader of the Opposition: Nancy Pelosi. Arguably, when the Speaker is of a different party than the President, this is a default position. Some might make an argument for Harry Reid as Senate Majority Leader, but since the Senate is constructed with the idea of a primus inter pares and the House has a clearer leadership structure (as well as the virtue of Representatives being - in theory - popularly elected and more democratic than Senators, which of course were originally chosen by state legislatures), I believe the nod has to go to Pelosi. Reid could be considered Deputy Leader of the Opposition - and since this role is theoretically the cognate of the Vice President, it makes sense to draw that person from the body over which the VP presides.
Shadow Secretary of State: I'm gonna catch some flack for this, since the mere mention of this person's names renders some people apoplectic, but I'd go with the head of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Joe Biden.
Shadow Secretary of Defense: One possibility - John Murtha. Barring that, perhaps Wes Clark (though in a Democratic administration he couldn't serve as the ACTUAL SecDef until 2010, after the mandatory 10-year wait has elapsed). Ike Skelton, the incoming chair of House Armed Services, might work here too. And for good measure, let's make Jim Webb the Shadow Secretary of the Navy - he already understands the gig.
Shadow Secretary of the Treasury: I don't know if he'd do it, and this is a wacky idea, but how about Paul Krugman? Arguably he'd work well as Shadow Secretary of Labor too.
Shadow Attorney General: This one is a no-brainer. Russ Feingold.
Shadow Secretary of the Interior: I like Al Gore here. One of the Udalls would work too (it runs in the family, after all).
Shadow Secretary of Agriculture: Either outgoing Iowa governor and Presidential candidate Tom Vilsack or Kansas governor Kathleen Sebelius. Scott Kleeb seems a good fit too.
These are just off the top of my head. We'd need all these plus:
Commerce
Labor
Health and Human Services
Housing and Urban Development
Transportation
Energy
Education
Veterans' Affairs
Homeland Security.
Remember - unlike our parliamentary cousins, we're not just limited to members of the representative body. Congresscritters may come to mind the quickest, but do not limit yourself. Also, being in the Shadow Cabinet does not automatically make that person the top choice in the event we get the White House in 2008. Sometimes a person is better suited for opposition than leadership.
Let's get some ideas and build a team.
WF