Third Party Cabinet Draft Picks: 2008

Dick Meyer's Choices For A New Independent Party Cabinet

(CBS) 
Secretary of Treasury: The Warren Buffett of institutional investors is a man named David Swenson. Since 1985, Swenson has managed the endowment of Yale University and arguably invested it better than any pot of institutional money in the country.

In a new era of Wall Street robber barons, Swenson personifies the word "fiduciary." And genius. He hasn't jumped Yale for a hedge fund and I doubt he would shaft your children's economic future to pay for tax cuts and spending increases. He is a good writer which means he can communicate with the rest of us mortals.

Director, Office of Management and Budget: If there really is someone called "Mrs. Clean" on Wall Street, it would be Sallie Krawcheck, the chief financial officer of Citigroup. "Fortune" once ran a headline that called her, "The Last Honest Analyst." When Citigroup had honesty issues, Krawcheck was brought in for the fix. The federal budget has some honesty issues.

Secretary of Commerce: Instead of wasting a Cabinet slot on currying favor and money with business, how about letting one of the greatest business growers in economic history try a few tricks? That would be John Doerr, the brilliant dean of Silicon Valley venture capitalists. Starting in 1980, Doerr was instrumental in sprouting Compaq, Intuit, Netscape, Lotus, Sun Microsystems and Amazon.com, just to pick a few names.

Secretary of Health and Human Services: One of the more despicable attributes of this regime is its disrespect for science. The remedy for that in the medical sphere is Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Human Genome Research Institute, the outfit that is mapping human DNA. He is a powerful and articulate public communicator and advocate for research and open access to it.

Secretary of Education: Mayor Bloomberg will stick with his pick, the current head of the New York city public school system, Joel Klein. Before taking on the schools of the country's biggest, weirdest city, Klein was the chief cop at the Securities and Exchange Commission. He knows how to fight every kind of bureaucracy and organization. And he chose public service over cashing in.

Secretary of Labor: This was one of the easy picks: Gene Upshaw, head of the National Football League Players Association and former star guard for the Oakland Raiders. He is the last attractive and well-known trade union head in America and the only one tough, savvy and maverick enough to sit at the table with President Bloomberg and the other billionaires I've stuck in the Cabinet.

Secretary of Interior: One of the greatest hoaxes perpetrated over several decades by the secret cabal of corporate and Republican America has been the myth that environmentalism is not conservative and is anti-business. Nothing – repeat nothing – is more conservative than conserving nature: think about it. Furthermore, nothing – nothing – creates more social dislocation, the real enemy of proper conservatives, than unfettered economic powers. Anyway, the key to finally killing that myth and having a real policy is selling and communication. Al Gore can't do it but Tom Brokaw can. With help, of course, so see below.

Director, Environmental Protection Agency: Dazzlingly articulate, the perfect match for Brokaw would be Thomas Lovejoy, a biologist who was the World Bank's Chief Biodiversity Advisor and before that, Assistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Secretary of Energy: To round out the trio of people who will reinvent environmentalism is the man who appears to be the smartest person on the planet, Nathan Myhrvold, once chief technologist at Microsoft. An entrepreneur in his own right, Myrhvold is stocked with gazillions and various high degrees in physics, geophysics and mathematical economics. He is now a part-time paleontologist. If he can figure out why the dinosaurs died he can figure out our fossil fuel problem.

Secretary of Transportation: Did you know that you don't have to be a citizen to be in the Cabinet? It's true. That makes this pick easy: Richard Branson, who reinvented the airline business with his Virgin Air. We need much more reinvention.

Secretary of Veteran Affairs: One of the founding fathers of AOL was a West Point graduate and Vietnam vet named Jim Kimsey. He has a high profile in Washington because of his philanthropy. He always has the clout and skill to build a proper health care system for the people who have served in the military.

Secretary of Housing and Urban Development: One of President Bloomberg's most promising fellow mayors is Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles. He played well on the national stage during the immigration debate and being a big city mayor is the best qualification for this job.

Secretary of Agriculture: If Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, can figure out how to sell polyester fleece sweatshirts to teenagers and yuppies for $300, he can figure how the people who grow food can earn livings. And he'll look good doing it.

If you like every name in this list, you have no business in the Independent Party. Some of these names should infuriate you. The whole idea here is to get accomplished people with huge brains and different world views together and show the country that it doesn't have to settle for second-rate service and propaganda from its government. If you have better names for the jobs, send them in. There is still some time before the Independent Party launches. At least on this planet.

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Dick Meyer is the editorial director of CBSNews.com.

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