Obama is planning another news conference for tomorrow at 10:45 am. He still has a couple of cabinet appointments to make.
Apparently, Senator Ken Salazar has been chosen as the next Secretary of the Interior, which means another open Senate seat:
That prospect has set off a scramble among Democrats eager to fill out the remainder of Salazar's term, which runs through 2010.And, this afternoon came word that the Secretary of Agriculture will be Tom Vilsack:
Names floated as possible successors include Hickenlooper, U.S. Rep. John Salazar of Manassa, U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter of Golden, U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette of Denver, former U.S. Attorney Tom Strickland, outgoing state House Speaker Andrew Romanoff and Bennet.
Hickenlooper, serving his second term as mayor, is considered a business-savvy Democrat. He declined to say whether he would be interested in filling Salazar's shoes.
Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack is expected to be named U.S. Secretary of Agriculture on Wednesday, a Democratic source told The Des Moines Register and the Associated Press reported today.
Vilsack, a former two-term Democratic governor who left office last year, had been mentioned as a consideration for Obama until last month, when he said he had not been contacted about the job.
The news adds the name of yet another onetime rival of Obama to the Democratic President-elect's prospective Cabinet. Vilsack, 58, briefly sought the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination but withdrew from the race after roughly three months. He also campaigned aggressively for New York Sen. Hillary Clinton's campaign until Obama clinched the nomination in June.
