Blue Texan links to this interesting US News piece on a chart that purports to show who the likely nominees are going to be in the upcoming Obama administration.

First thing I’m thinking: Is this another Rahm leak special, or is it Podesta’s doing? Obama better learn to like leaks, because he’s got at least one very chatty person working for him.

Second thing I’m thinking: This looks to be, in large part, about restoring the institutional memory that got ravaged over the last few years, when people who hate government and see it only as a place to park their otherwise-useless buddies had nearly complete control over it. So if some of the picks don’t seem especially "changey" to you, bear this in mind.

Briefly looking at some of the positions (and feel free to chime in on these and the ones I’ve missed):

Philip Sharp for DoE: He’s a former Democratic congressman and current president of Resources for the Future, which is touted as "a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that conducts independent research – rooted primarily in economics and other social sciences – on environmental, energy, and natural resource issues." He seems to have been exposed to the requisite scientific chops for the job, but foes of nuclear power might raise their eyebrows at his being on the advisory board of the Institute of Nuclear Power Operations and the board of directors of Duke Energy.

Tim Roemer would be an OK choice for HS, especially as he was one of the guys behind the original, halfway decent, Homeland plan that Rove later butchered; it also would pull him, a conservativish Dem, out of any potential running to succeed Howard Dean at the DNC (he was Dean’s chief rival for the DNC Chair job back in ’05). But James Lee Witt was the last guy to run FEMA right, so putting him in at Homeland Security would be perfect. Again, much of this is about restoring the institutional memory that got trashed when the anti-government folks had complete control (and did things like turning FEMA back into the turkey farm it was under Reagan and the first Bush).

Same with Gephardt and Bonior at Labor: Either would work very well, and they’d restore institutional memory in a department where the foxes have run the henhouse for too long a time.

Bill Richardson at Interior? Faboo!

Janet Napolitano at DoJ? YES! Doooo eeeet!  (update: Bmaz has more.)

Max Cleland at VA? Doooo eeeet!

John Kerry at State? Doooo eeeet! (Watch as the Stateies purged by Bush start to come back now that sanity has been restored.)

Howard Dean at HHS? DOUBLE TRIPLE DOOO EEEET!

By the way, I’m really surprised that this chart doesn’t have Chuck Hagel over at DoD for the obligatory Republican pick. Hagel was one of the Republican voices that most forcefully spoke out against the planned invasion of Iraq back in the summer of 2002. Then again, there is a reason why Gates is apparently sticking around: He’s overseeing what looks to be a de facto withdrawal from Iraq (shhh, don’t tell the wingnuts!), so I suspect that Obama doesn’t want to interfere with that.