No Liberals In Obama Cabinet? But the Budget Chief Is 'Nonpartisan'

On ABC’s World News on Tuesday night, anchor Charles Gibson ran down the list of all the Obama cabinet appointments so far, and never found a liberal label for any of them, from Hillary Clinton to Tom Daschle. ABC reporter Jake Tapper followed with the President-elect’s newest budget nominees: "Mr. Obama today appointed experts from Capitol Hill to run his Office of Management and Budget. To be headed by Peter Orszag, the current director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office."

TV reporters love to designate the CBO as "nonpartisan," but the appointment is made by the parties in power in the House and Senate, as the CBO website explains: "The Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President pro tempore of the Senate jointly appoint the CBO Director, after considering recommendations from the two budget committees." The current president pro tempore of the Senate is Robert Byrd. Orszag got the job when the Democrats took over in 2007. Before that, he worked for the liberal Brookings Institution.

Here's how Gibson ran down his completely non-ideological list of Obama picks:

We learned another member of the Barack Obama economic team today. We have a chart of the cabinet that the new president will have. His new director of the Office of Management and Budget will be Peter Orszag, who is currently the director of the Congressional Budget Office. But we’re also learning some of the other members to be announced in his cabinet. For instance, ABC News has learned today that Robert Gates, the current Secretary of Defense, will stay on for at least the first year of the new Obama administration. In the Department of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano the leading contender. She is the governor of the state of Arizona.

Everybody is talking about the State Department. We understand that Hillary Clinton is a done deal. She will be announced as the new secretary of state in an Obama administration. At the United Nations, Dr. Susan Rice, currently at the Brookings Institution, no relation to Condoleezza Rice, will take over as the U.N. ambassador in a new Obama adminstration. Attorney General, Eric Holder, former Deputy Attorney General, friend of Barack Obama, the nominee there. We understand the vetting process is complete. At the Department of Health and Human Services, former senator Tom Daschle from South Dakota, friend of Barack Obama, to take over there, and the leading contender at the Commerce Department, Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico.

Let's review briefly some lifetime American Conservative Union ratings for the Obama adminstration: Barack Obama eight percent, Joe Biden 13, Rahm Emanuel 13, Hillary Clinton's an eight, and Tom Daschle, a 13. Clearly, a Republican list of appointees with ACU scores of 87 to 92 would be a list of "conservatives."