Article: SOCIALIST CANDIDATE NAMES PROSPECTIVE CABINET

Responding to recent speculation regarding potential Cabinet members in an Obama Administration, Brian P. Moore, the Socialist Party's candidate for President, announced his own "Shadow Cabinet" in a statement released early Sunday. Among other individuals that Moore said he would approach about serving in his administration in the unlikely event that he is swept into office on Tuesday, the little-known Socialist nominee said he would ask the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, Democratic candidate Barack Obama's former minister and controversial mentor, to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.

Moore, speaking with uncharacteristic bravado, said that his ideal administration would also include individuals such as former California congressman Paul N. McCloskey as Secretary of State and former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, a longtime critic of the military-industrial complex, as Secretary of Defense. The former Alaska lawmaker, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic and Libertarian Party presidential nominations earlier this year, recently co-authored A Political Odyssey: The Rise of American Militarism and One Man's Fight to Stop It, published by Seven Stories Press. The Socialist candidate said that he would also ask retired U.S. Air Force Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski to serve as Under Secretary of Defense for Policy.

The Socialist standard-bearer said that he would also ask David McReynolds, the Socialist Party's presidential candidate in 1980 and 2000, to serve as Secretary of the newly-created Department of Peace. The amiable McReynolds, who recently turned 79, is a retired staff member for the New York-based War Resisters League. Deron Mikal of Florida, a service officer for the Disabled American Veterans, would be asked to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, the federal government's second largest department. The department has enjoyed Cabinet-level status since 1989.

Meredith Whitney, a managing director of Oppenheimer & Co., would be approached about serving as Secretary of the Treasury. "I have no idea if she would be willing to serve in my administration," admitted Moore, "but she was alone among the Wall Street analysts in accurately predicting the current financial and banking crisis. She has the ability to see around corners a quality seemingly in short supply on Wall Street." Moore has been highly critical of the recent $750 billion bailout of the country's financial institutions. Longtime Socialist activist and former economics instructor Eric Chester would be tapped as Moore's Secretary of Commerce. "As a member of the Cabinet, Mr. Chester would play a critical role in the transition to a socialist economy," said Moore.

The 65-year-old Moore, a semi-retired executive health care recruiter from Spring Hill, Florida, making his first run for the Oval Office, indicated that he would like to see the Justice Department headed by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, a position that the 86-year-old radical lawyer held during LBJ's presidency.

Moore, who is on the ballot in eight states and an official write-in candidate in twenty-one others, said that he would ask historian and social activist Howard Zinn, author of the widely-read A People's History of the United States, to serve as Secretary of Labor. Walter F. Brown, a former state senator from Oregon and the Socialist Party's candidate for the presidency four years ago, would be named Secretary of the Interior. A lifelong member of the Sierra Club, the 82-year-old Brown authored the first legislation in the United States outlawing dangerous chlorofluorocarbons in aerosol cans in 1975 - a full year before the National Academy of Sciences issued its ominous warning about the harmful effects of CFC's on the ozone layer. C. T. Weber, a longtime activist in the California Peace & Freedom Party, would be asked to serve as Secretary of Energy, according to Moore.

In his statement, the Socialist candidate said that Chicago physician Quentin Young, a longtime advocate for single-payer health care in the United States, would be approached about heading the Department of Health & Human Services. William McGaughey, a political maverick from Minneapolis who once co-authored a book on a shorter workweek with the late Senator Eugene J. McCarthy, will be asked to serve as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. Consumer advocate and presidential rival Ralph Nader, waging his fourth bid for the White House, would be an ideal choice for Secretary of Transportation, said Moore, and Marsha Feinland, a longtime public school teacher who is currently running for a seat in the California State Senate, would be his first choice to head the Department of Education. Veteran newspaper reporter Jim Cullen, editor of the Progressive Populist, would be asked to serve as Secretary of Agriculture.

Jerry Levy of Vermont, national co-chair of the Socialist Party-USA, would be named as Secretary of Culture & Arts, a new Cabinet-level post that will be created shortly after Moore's inauguration. A sociology professor at Marlboro College, Levy is currently running for state auditor of Vermont on the Liberty Union Party ticket. He's probably best known as the actor in Howard Zinn's one-man play, "Marx in Soho."

Moore, who said that he would abolish the Department of Homeland Security as one of his first acts as America's 44th chief executive, also named several other individuals that he would like to see in his administration, including Jay Jurie, a University of Central Florida professor of public administration who would be asked to head the Office of Management and Budget. A sixties activist, Jurie is currently a faculty advisor to UCF's Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) chapter. According to Moore, Bill Callison, a veteran antiwar and environmental activist, would be asked to serve as administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency that reports directly to the President. A graduate of Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley, Callison is currently running for Congress on the Peace & Freedom ticket in California's seventh congressional district.

"Obviously, we haven't asked any of these individuals yet if they would be willing to serve in my administration," Moore concluded. "If lightning strikes, those calls will be made first thing Wednesday morning."