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SOCIALIST CANDIDATE NAMES PROSPECTIVE CABINET

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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."
 
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Darcy G. Richardson is the author of more than a dozen books on American politics and history. His most recent title, "Bernie: A Lifelong Crusade Against Wall Street & Wealth," was published by Sevierville Publishing in 2015. The recipient (more...)
 

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