Trade and labor appointments

More rivals? It seems that Obama has chosen Ron Kirk as his USTR and Hilda Solis as his labor secretary. Kirk, a former mayor of Dallas, is said to be a supporter of NAFTA in particular and free trade in general. Solis is apparently a labor advocate and friend of the unions, and not so keen on liberal trade; read Harold Meyerson's endorsement:

What does Rep. Hilda Solis, Barack Obama's selection for secretary of labor, bring to the job? Only a record of passionate commitment to working people, a high level of political smarts, and some genuine displays of raw guts that could make her a star of American liberalism...

In the House, Solis has continued to champion labor causes, immigrants' rights, women's health and environmental protections. She also worked closely with Rahm Emanuel in recruiting Democratic House candidates from the Southwest and Latino-dominated districts, so she brings to her new job a strong relationship with Obama's incoming chief-of-staff. Now, she's in the key position to promote the Employee Free Choice Act, which seems likely to be the most contentious issue on Obama's agenda. But Solis has never been deterred by controversy.

Assuming the appointments are confirmed, we will see how well they can work together. As I have said before, I question the wisdom of combining people with fundamental disagreements in executive (as opposed to advisory) roles. Widely divergent opinions are good in a seminar but not so good in a management setting, where the challenge is not to develop and polish an opinion but to get something done. Much as I admire the man and respect his appetite for countervailing opinion, I'm beginning to wonder if Obama understands this distinction. Dysfunctional quarreling is the obvious risk. A subtler problem is that if you appoint people who disagree with each other to run adjoining or overlapping spheres of policy, you, the boss, cannot delegate. Obama will always have to be there to adjudicate--and his time and energy are going to be very scarce resources.