Blogging the Executive Branch

Members of Congress and candidates for office all blog, as do pundits, reporters, and organizations. I suppose, then, it was only a matter of time before sitting Cabinet Secretaries started journaling through some administrative rage and joined us out here on the frontier.

Maybe you're interested in how Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt is feeling about a current initiative or a recent trip, or maybe even how he did on that last exam. Maybe the steely-eyed Chertoff is more your speed, and you want to know how he's planning to utilize FEMA in the California wildfires, or maybe who he's thinking about asking to the Fall Fling. Either way, you now have the opportunity to get a day to day glimpse of these two Bush appointees.

As I read through each one, I get the feeling that while both are staff-produced, at least in part, I wonder if these guys are producing some of their own (albeit heavily, heavily vetted) content, as Leavitt claims he writes every entry himself. Chertoff, according to the article, pitches the idea, has someone else write it, and then edits it and approves it for publication.

The subject matter (and level of partisan subjectivity) vary. For instance, Chertoff delivers this chestnut, assuring us what Winston would want:

By responding in strength, we’ve applied Winston Churchill’s words at Westminster to our enemies today. As Churchill said of the communists, “There is nothing they admire so much as strength and there is nothing for which they have less respect than for weakness.” Whether it’s Hitler or Stalin, Bin Laden or Iranian President Ahmadinejad—for ideological fanatics, weakness is provocative.

That, to me, feels like some staff writing, or an Official Selection from the RNC. But this:

Similar to the way football teams practice for game day, we prepare for real world disasters by constantly conducting small exercises throughout the year, and applying what we learn to larger and more complex events like TOPOFF. Our goal is to push our systems to the breaking point--and beyond--to help us better understand what things perform well and what areas need work.

After we complete an exercise, we review the results, address any problems that arose, and share the lessons learned with our homeland security partners throughout the government and private sector. While not released to the general public, we do circulate these results promptly to our state and local partners to reduce vulnerabilities identified within the exercise. Most importantly, we apply these lessons learned to real-world situations.

... feels a little more natural. Even though I'm diametrically opposed to almost everything these guys are writing, I think the idea of a blogging Secretary of State, or Labor, or Homeland Security in a Democratic administration is an interesting idea. It is so incredibly politically risky I can see why operatives and aides everywhere cringe at the thought, but think about what a potential Democratic Cabinet could look like. You could have some really entertaining writing going on. Honestly, if Robert Reich could put together such a funny, well-written book on being Secretary of Labor under Clinton, wouldn't it have been kind of neat to see him writing about it on a daily basis?