What exactly does the Commerce Department do? For years it has been a place to park rich campaign contributors or morons who are owed a favor. So, it runs the Census. Let Treasury do it. Make an example for corporate America by abolishing an unnecessary Department.
If you think that a Conservative Republican who used to argue that the Commerce Department should be abolished is a reasonable choice for its Secretary, it is time to abolish it.
Time to promote the EPA to an actual cabinet Department. Instead of making the EPA administrator a `Cabinet level' officer, just make it a Department. Put it in charge of Climate Change Policy. NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) should go to it. NIST ( National Institute of Standard and Technology) has some brilliant scientists. They belong more properly under the Department of Energy, which has become the de facto Department of Science in the US Government.
Negotiations for new Free Trade agreements and such can be shared between Treasury and State, the way it has always been done. No need for yet another Department. Save $6B annually and eliminate 38,000 unnecessary jobs.(See comment below:actual savings are much smaller but still substantial).
Here is a list of the Commerce Secretaries of the last twenty years:
Carlos Gutieriez (who?)
Donald Evans (ditto)
Norm Mineta (former Democratic Congressman; sole Democrat in Bush Cabinet)
William Daley (brother of the Mayor of Chicago)
Mickey Kantor (NAFTA-enough said)
Ron Brown (DNC Chair, died in tragic plane crash)
Barbara Franklin (huh?)
Robert Mosbacher (when an Ambassadorship just isn't enough)
Does anybody miss these people? Instead of struggling to find someone to head Commerce, Obama should just abolish it.