Earlier this month, WaPo reported on difficulties the Obama administration appears to be having in courting a replacement for former Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano.
Napolitano left last month to serve as president of the University of California.
Currently, Rand Beers–a career State Department and DHS official, and former member of the National Security staff under for U.S. Presidents–serves as acting DHS chief.
From WaPo‘s Oct. 1 article:
Eyebrows are going up around town with no word that a candidate to replace Napolitano as secretary of Homeland Security is immediately forthcoming. Talk is that the White House got turned down by its top two picks to fill the job.
(Could be that’s because, as we’ve pointed out, the job of DHS Secretary is one of the hardest and yet least appreciated Cabinet gigs? Or maybe they didn’t ask nicely.)
Seems it’s a tough challenge to find the right candidate. Those tracking the search say the White House would love to fill the job with a minority or a woman. Making the pool even smaller, the conventional wisdom is that anyone who would take the job wouldn’t have political aspirations. “It’s a high-risk job,” said one observer. “If something happens on your watch, you’re done.”
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