Secretary Janet Napolitano escorted into Coast Guard Headquarters by Adm. Thad Allen Jan. 22, 2009
Amy Kudwa, acting Homeland Security press secretary, said Secretary Janet Napolitano spent her first week meeting with top agency officials. Those meetings were well publicised in the press and on most agency websites. As this morning, Coast Guards website still carried the photo at right of Napolitano’s visit to Headquarters.
What hasn’t been widely discussed are some of the more intimate details of each meeting between the Secretary and the agency heads. Many Bush appointees inside the beltway have been asked to stay on the Obama team during the transition period.
According to Kudwa “She has asked some – including Deputy Secretary Paul A. Schneider, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham and Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen – to stay on during the transition period.”
Secretary Napolitano’s Press Secretary’s interview with the Washington Times was the first sign that President Obama will nominate a new Coast Guard Commandant. Coast Guard has been increasingly under fire from members of congress over their failed Deepwater Acquisition program. Former Secretary Michael Chertoff shielded Allen from calls he be replaced. Chertoff’s support was important in a Bush administration where the President relied on his cabinet secretaries to clean their own houses.
With Chertoff gone, it’s possible that neither Napolitano or the new President are willing carry the risk.
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