Gay White Mother of Black Adopted Son: That Qualifies You for the Cabinet?

Wall Street Journal reporter Jonathan Weisman (fresh from a stint at the Washington Post) displayed the extremes of mistaking bean-counting for administrative perfection on the paper’s Washington Wire blog on Tuesday:

For the rainbow cabinet of the nation’s first African American president, Mary Beth Maxwell is the perfect labor secretary you’ve probably never heard of: a gay woman, community organizer and labor leader with an adopted African American son. And this founding executive director of American Rights at Work is about to get the full-court press.

How is someone "perfectly" qualified for the cabinet by their sexuality, or by the race of their adopted children? Why doesn’t anyone in the political press have any skepticism about the relevance of race, gender, and sexual orientation in determining every single high government appointment?

Maxwell’s group is not fond of the current Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, mocking her on their website with a bad photo and the phrase "Shame on Elaine." She's on YouTube speaking at a left-wing conference on "Why Can't America Have Human Rights?"

Weisman also found that the gay lobby is horrified at their failure to back the gay choice:

Today, the gay rights group Human Rights Campaign will release a letter to President-elect Barack Obama strongly backing her. The catch: The group last week backed Rep. Linda Sanchez for the post.

"You would have received our letter in support of Representative Sánchez’s candidacy for Secretary of Labor last week," HRC President Joe Solmonese writes, asking for a mulligan.

"While we remain supportive of Representative Sánchez’s candidacy, it has come to our attention that Mary Beth Maxwell is also being considered for this crucial position. Given Ms. Maxwell’s long history of leadership on labor issues, HRC is pleased to also endorse Mary Beth Maxwell for Secretary of Labor."