new commerce secretary nominee

Obama chooses Gary Locke for commerce secretary

WASHINGTON – Hoping the third time will be the charm, President Barack Obama named former Washington Gov. Gary Locke as his nominee for Commerce secretary Wednesday.
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A Democrat, Locke was the nation's first Chinese-American governor, serving two terms from 1997 to 2005.

If confirmed by the Senate, he would assume control of a large agency with a broad portfolio that includes overseeing the 2010 national head count, oceans policy and many aspects of international trade.
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Locke, 59, works for the Seattle-based law firm Davis Wright Tremaine on issues involving China, energy and governmental relations.

He still must get through Senate confirmation hearings to assume the post, and there are a number of issues over which he may face questions.

Locke was briefly linked to the scandal over foreign contributions to President Bill Clinton's 1996 campaign. In July 1998, he gave a deposition to the House Committee on Government Reform and Oversight about his relationships with questioned Clinton donors. But the committee later said the deposition produced no evidence that Locke knowingly accepted illegal campaign donations.

Locke denied any wrongdoing, and he subsequently returned some checks tied to people implicated in the fundraising scandal, including $750 from John Huang. The former Commerce Department official was the Democratic Party's chief fundraiser for the Asian-American population in the 1996 elections, and he became one of the central figures in the national Democratic Party fundraising scandal.

In December 1997, Locke's political committee was fined a maximum $2,500 by state regulators after it admitted breaking campaign finance laws during two out-of-state fundraisers in 1996.

And in March 1998, state investigators cleared Locke of wrongdoing following complaints that he unlawfully took $10,000 in campaign contributions from members of a Buddhist church.

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Of course, even though he was cleared of any wrong-doing, the repugs will raise a big stink about this nominee, as well.
It would be nice if Obama could find some nominees without issues, though!

More from Crooks and Liars:

Obama names Gary Locke his new pick for Commerce Secretary

So President Obama went with a safe pick in naming Gary Locke his choice as commerce secretary.

I've known Locke since he was a King County Executive in the 1990s. He was probably the best Exec that King County has ever had -- exceedingly competent. However, Locke was less impressive as a governor; he lacked a lot of the leadership skills we needed on critical issues like the environment and infrastructure.

Still, he's a highly competent bureaucrat, and a capable spokesman for international trade -- which will probably make him an ideal pick for a position like Commerce.

The best thing, from a blogospheric perspective, about the Locke pick: It's going to drive Michelle Malkin crazy. She had what we in the journalistic biz call "a hard-on" for Locke when she was a columnist for the Seattle Times. It got to be a joke, because Locke has always been a squeaky clean guy.

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Sounds like the "scandals" might be much ado about nothing...