Reflections on a presidential cabinet that worked

As the drama of President-elect Trump’s cabinet picks unfolds, we might take a minute to appreciate the stability and the competence of the Biden cabinet.

Trump supporters will guffaw at that suggestion because they will point to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, whom the Republican-led House tried to impeach for allowing the situation at the southern border to fester though that failed because at least some Republicans recognized that a disagreement about policy is not an impeachable offense.

There is a certain perverse irony in the fact that the House was willing to impeach Mayorkas but not to vote for funds to increase the number of border agents or immigration judges that might have helped deal with the situation.

Critics might also point out that fighting continues in Gaza and Ukraine and that Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not solved those problems through diplomacy. Well, now Sen. Marco Rubio will presumably have his chance.

Between Jan. 21, 2021, the day after President Biden’s inauguration, and March 24, 2021, — essentially two months — almost every member of the president’s cabinet had their hearings and were confirmed in bipartisan votes. None were rejected. Only three of the 27 members of the cabinet have, in the last four years, had successors: Marty Walsh at Labor, Cecilia Rouse at the Council of Economic Advisers and Ron Klain as White House Chief of Staff.

All left for their own reasons and none because of performance issues or scandal.

All these officials were confirmed in their positions because they were well-qualified. Secretary of State Blinkin had been both Deputy Secretary of State and Deputy National Security Adviser. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin had a long and distinguished career in the Army. Dr. Miguel Cardona had spent a lifetime in education and had run Connecticut’s Department of Education. Over 25 years, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines had worked her way up to senior positions in the State Department, National Security Council, White House and CIA.

For many, the legacy of the Biden administration will be the withdrawal from Afghanistan, inflation, the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the chaos at the southern border and his pardon of his son. That would be unfair.

His administration pushed through three significant pieces of legislation despite an extremely partisan Congress — the infrastructure bill (something the Trump administration could not pass in four years), the CHIPS Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (which is principally a climate bill).

Together, these bills have funded tens of thousands of projects in every state, unleashed hundreds of billions in private investment, created hundreds of thousands of jobs and done much to enhance our national security. Day to day, they have been managed by Janet Yellen at Treasury, Deb Haaland at Interior, Pete Buttigieg at Transportation, Jennifer Granholm at Energy, Xavier Baccera at HHS and Gina Raimondo at Commerce.

Of course, those are just the major accomplishments. There have been myriad other changes from greater rights for airline passengers, capping the cost of insulin, or taking steps to ensure that the rise of AI will be an economic boon and not a threat.

Donald Trump has pledged to dismantle many of these accomplishments, but will meet resistance from Republicans whose districts and states are benefiting from these investments. Of course, the president-elect must get his own cabinet in place first.

It is telling that The Economist chose as its “Word of the Year” kakistocracy. Kakistocracy means “rule by the worst” and it shot to the top of Google Trends the day after Mr. Trump’s election. Too many of his manifestly unqualified cabinet picks have only fueled that trend.

• Keith Peterson, of Lake Barrington, served 29 years as a press and cultural officer for the United States Information Agency and Department of State. He was chief editorial writer of the Daily Herald 1984-86. His new book “American Dreams: The Story of the Cyprus Fulbright Commission” is available from Amazon.com.