there seven treasury secretaries. that s several more than i have, steve. the president s choice of jack lew is already stirring some conversation because he has completed the top four cabinet posts with another white man. that has put the white house on the defensive. if janet napolitano is the secretary of homeland security, the cabinet level position, the u.n. ambassador, the u.s. ambassador to the united nations is susan rice. you know, again, i could go through the list. this president has appointed has made two appointments to the supreme court both of them women. i think that his commitment to do you think it s an unfair charge? i think that the record speaks for itself. the record does speak for itself, doesn t it? joining me now for our daily fix, chris alissa, msnbc contributor managing editor of post politics.com, msnbc s white house correspondent kristen welker and washington post opinion columnist ruth marcus. ruth, i got to start with you because of the head
chris, what about hilda solis departing? we understand she has some political prospects herself back in her native california. you are losing a cabinet secretary who is not only, you know, female, but hispanic. yeah. when it happened yesterday afternoon, andrea, i haut to myself, gee, this is the department of bad timing for president obama because ruth hits it exactly right, which is, yes, janet napolitano is at hhs excuse me at department homeland security. yes, cathleen is at health and human services. susan rice, lisa jackson, though she s leaving, you know, but it s these big it s the big four cabinet jobs that we always think of. the very most prominent ones that have the most sort of sway, the biggest portfolio. all cabinet jobs are not created equal. they just aren t. i think that s why they re taking the criticism. would i say, though, look, i
was really struck this morning on morning joe. john hileman saying, and he as a political writer and one of the more he turns things turns books around much, much faster. he wrote 1,000 pages, richard ben cramer did, and chris alissa, as hileman put it, he went sympathetically behind the eyes i think is what he said this morning of those of his subjects. he really got to understand them and get you know their thoughts. i spent a lot of time with richard. i wrote about him for my book. i did a prefile of him in the book in what it takes. i think a lot of us are reporting might not be were it not for what it takes for richard ben cramer. the thing i thought was fascinating in sitting and talking to him, he did the bottom up rather than top down approach. when he started that book, he was just a nobody. he had a foreign correspondent. he couldn t get any of the campaigns to return his phone calls. couldn t get any time with them. what did he do?
0 it was to me like the waet way to find out how what made how to figure out what makes pole tigs tick. i know chris is that way too. these folks that want to seek power, that want to run government, ewe just trying to figure out who they are, and he did this in a way that many of us, i think, have always been tempted to try to strive for. he set a bar so high. i don t think anybody has even come close to meeting it. in many ways maybe they never will because of just the nature of what we do to politicians and how politicians scrub their own backgrounds to this day, but it was that book, you know, if you if you finish reading that book and you re not in and you re still not enaturalered with politics, then don t then get out of it. you know? it s sort of a it took four years to write about the six men he profiled from the 1988 campaign, and i was really struck this morning on morning joe. john hileman saying, and he as a political writer and one of the more he turns
condolences on last night s game and rg3 s knee. it is a hard day for redskins fans. redskins nation. thank you, alex. coming up live this hour, president obama is about to nominate chuck hagel as defense secretary and john brennan to head the cia. we ll have the announcement just a few moments from now. plus, chuck todd, tom pickering, and one of his chief opponents, senator john cornin. chris alissa, and michael lighter, susan page, look marcus. andrea mitchell reports is next on mshs. not their short-term ag. [ male announcer ] join the nearly 7 million investors who think like you do. face time and think time make a difference. at edward jones, it s how we make sense of investing.