BY NAOMI CRAINE
In selecting a virtually new cabinet for his second administration, President William Clinton continues to lead the rightward shift of bourgeois politics in the United States. In his nominations and recent speeches, Clinton has made plain his intent to aggressively advance U.S. big- business interests against capitalist rivals around the world, through trade policies backed up by the largest military arsenal on earth. At the same time, the administration has made it crystal clear it will continue to attack the social entitlements and living standard that working people in the United States have won over decades of struggles.

Clinton nominated Madeline Albright for Secretary of State, replacing Warren Christopher. As the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for the last four years, Albright has been a leading spokesperson for Washington's foreign policy. She has often pushed for U.S. military intervention, including in Haiti, Somalia, and Yugoslavia. Albright repeatedly attacked the Cuban revolution from the UN rostrum, including pushing through a UN Security Council resolution criticizing the workers' state for shooting down two hostile planes that invaded its airspace from Florida last February. Most recently, she was the point person for forcing out a UN secretary general, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, who didn't meet with Uncle Sam's approval.

Albright, whose father was a prominent Czech diplomat prior to World War II, brags that, "Because of my parents' love for democracy we came to America after being driven twice from our home in Czechoslovakia - first by Hitler and then by Stalin." She is a strong advocate of expanding NATO to include states in central and eastern Europe.

Rep. Bill Richardson has been tapped to take over from Albright as UN ambassador. A Democrat from New Mexico, he helped the president push the North American Free Trade Agreement through Congress. At the news conference where Clinton announced his nomination, Richardson said he will continue the policy of "working hard to reform and strengthen the UN while making it clear that we would continue to rely on our own resources and alliances for the protection of our vital economic and security interests." Initially an opponent of U.S. aid to the "contras" fighting to overthrow the Nicaraguan workers and farmers government in the 1980s, the congressman shifted his position in 1985 and backed "humanitarian" funding for the rightists.

Advancing bipartisan foreign policy
In place of William Perry, who is resigning as Secretary of Defense, Clinton nominated William Cohen, a Republican from Maine and until last November a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Calling his nomination "a bold and exciting move," Cohen said he would advance a bipartisan foreign policy. "Our policy at all costs must be unified when it comes down to those crucial moments when the nation is in need," Cohen declared.

The president chose Anthony Lake as the new director of CIA. Lake has been Clinton's national security advisor for the last four years.

According to a profile in the December 6 Washington Post, "The image of liberal academic that Lake himself promoted after leaving government at the end of the Carter administration has led many to believe he is opposed to covert action. Yet several officials said he had supported the CIA's secret operation to help foment dissent in northern Iraq and cause trouble for Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. He also did not object when current CIA director John M. Deutch repeatedly called for an expansion of covert operations to undermine terrorism and narcotics trafficking." The Post cited an unnamed colleague of Lake as saying he will work in the CIA to "restore its image." The background of the nominee for top U.S. spy includes a Foreign Service stint in Vietnam in the 1960s.

Samuel Berger, who was Lake's deputy, will take his place as national security advisor. Berger's relations with Clinton go back to their work for George McGovern's presidential campaign in 1972. Berger was one of those in the Clinton administration who reportedly argued early on for sending troops to both Haiti and Yugoslavia. "On sensitive issues with deep political ramifications, such as trade sanctions for Cuba, it has often been Berger who played the critical role in White House deliberations," the Washington Post reported.

Clinton is nominating William Daley to serve as the next Commerce Secretary. Daley's father Richard Daley was formerly mayor of Chicago; his brother currently holds that post. In addition to his law practice in Chicago, William Daley coordinated Clinton's pro-NAFTA campaign in Congress in 1993 and organized fund-raising from local businessmen to host the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last summer.

Among other cabinet decisions, Clinton announced December 13 that Janet Reno will continue in the post of attorney general. One of her first actions in that job four years ago was to okay an assault on the Branch Davidian religious sect in Waco, Texas, that left 86 people dead. She has played a major part in the Clinton administration's "law and order" campaign. There have been tensions between the attorney general and the president, however, over her appointment of four special prosecutors to investigate allegations of wrongdoing by Clinton and his associates.

Also retaining their posts are Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala and Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin. Still open for nomination are the posts for secretaries of Labor, Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development. These had been held by Robert Reich, Francisco Peņa, and Henry Cisneros, respectively.

Among other top economic posts, Clinton appointed Gene Sperling, who has worked closely with Rubin, to head the National Economic Council. He nominated acting U.S. Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky to take that position full-time. With these moves, the New York Times stated December 14, the president "effectively consolidated the powers of Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin as the dominant Cabinet officer of a second term."

Commenting on the new Clinton cabinet in a syndicated column published December 18, David Broder stated, "There is almost no left left in his administration." He pointed to the replacement of White House chief of staff Leon Panetta by North Carolina businessman Erskine Bowles and the departure of Clinton's political advisor George Stephanopoulos as indications of a more rightward-leaning regime.

"The result is likely to be the most conservative Democratic administration this century," Broder declared.

Continued attacks on social gains
In a December 11 speech to the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC) and two days later in a news conference announcing several cabinet appointments, Clinton stressed many now-familiar themes his administration intends to push on. He told the politicians in the DLC, which he was a founder of in 1985, that his administration was holding "the vital center the DLC has been trying to forge with new ideas and mainstream values for more than a decade now....

"Both parties now agree that we must balance the budget," he added. He stressed this point at the December 13 news conference as well, saying, "It is good policy for America to pass a balanced budget plan now and to implement it. And I believe I have some credibility on that, because we cut the deficit by more in four years than anyone has in a month of Sundays."

Washington's probes for how to cut Social Security, including by rigging the Consumer Price Index to indicate lower inflation, have not abated. Even if this goes through, bondholders won't be out in the cold, though.

A new "inflation-indexed" bond, linked to the CPI, is scheduled to go on the market in January. The Wall Street Journal reported December 18 it will probably pay premium interest rates in order to offset investors' uncertainty over the CPI rate.  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home