by José de la Isla
WASHINGTON, D.C. — That Barack Obama named New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson as Secretary of Commerce-designate hardly comes as a surprise. The announcement was like his calling former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker back into service.
In a role worthy of Richardson’s talents, Obama’s economic team seems to move toward getting the economy’s fuel — credit — flowing again. Richardson’s role will be to transform the old business economy into a new one.
Judging how Richardson led in New Mexico, and the not-so-minor green revolution he sparked, he will bring to the administration a tonic it lacks — success in building coherence.
But this new administration might be creating an insincerity gap. Richardson, the nation’s lone Hispanic governor, is an offering to the nation and not completely a gesture to leaders reciprocating for the role Latinos played in the election.
Even marching out the White House appointments of Cecilia Muñoz, a MacArthur fellow and VP at National Council of La Raza, to head Intergovernmental Affairs and Louis Caldera, former Secretary of the Army, as director of the White House Military Office looked like a clumsy attempt at appearing, instead of being, responsive.
Those Hispanics already doing transition work or identified for possible roles in the new administration have impressive credentials. One in the policy bunch is even a Nobel laureate. But the Obama team seems asleep at the wheel about this, giving the impression snobbery is more important than engagement — pretending they all did not attend the same prestigious schools, and finding difference in sameness.
The naming of Rahm Emanuel as chief of staff was possibly a pragmatic move. But still, he is the guy who warned Democrats to run away from the immigration issue in 2006.
At the time, 104 members of the House anti-immigration reform caucus were running amok and wanted to criminalize undocumented immigrants. Their antics not only slapped 50 million Hispanics in the face, they got us as a nation into a human rights mess promoting values against our own Constitution.
If Obama is going to posture himself as an FDR-type who counsels there’s nothing for the public to fear but fear itself, then we have to recognize that confronted with fear, Emanuel told his colleagues to run.
The people spoke in 2006, and ten of those congressional zealots were defeated.
And in 2008, two of their leaders, James Sensenbrenner and Tom Tancredo, decided not to run. Fourteen hard-line anti-immigration Republicans of that gang were voted out of office.
“Immigration” like “the economy” and “health care” are not just issues. They are bellwether values requiring sustained attention. They are measures by which we judge whether we have a decent, well-run nation. The negative lesson comes from the Bush administration, which went into intellectual and policy bankruptcy before the housing, banking and finance dominos fell.
Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said in late November that his chamber was taking up the difficult immigration and health care issues in the next session. This is sending a message.
So far, the Obama government lists immigration as just one among 24 issue categories on its website. This is not what priority attention looks like. What it needs to heed is 67.
That’s the percentage of Latinos who voted for Obama. It’s not that Obama owes them. It’s that neither he, nor his people, can afford to snub them.
Now, put that ruggula in your pipe and smoke it.
[José de la Isla, author of “The Rise of Hispanic Political Power” (Archer Books 2003), writes weekly commentaries for Hispanic Link News Service. Email: joseisla3@yahoo.com]. ©2008
