Our Labor Secretary Needs To Step Up His Game
Marty Walsh is disengaged from regulatory policymaking, and he spends twice as much time in Boston as he does in Washington. That needs to change.
I love Boston as much as the next guy, and probably a little more. I can’t get enough of scrod broiled in butter, or baked beans, or even Indian Pudding, whose charms are lost on many people. I grieved at the closing of the Locke-Ober Cafe and Durgin Park. I think the Boston Public Garden is one of the loveliest public spaces in any American city. I think the Atlantic was out of its mind to leave its offices overlooking the Public Garden in the 1980s, and then to leave Boston altogether 20-odd years after that for Washington, D.C. Among other difficulties, D.C. is a three-hour drive from the eponymous Atlantic Ocean.
Nevertheless:
The current labor secretary spends twice as much time in Boston as he does here in Washington, D.C., and that isn’t good. Marty Walsh was a pretty good mayor of Boston, I’m told, but as labor secretary he’s disengaged from regulatory policymaking and Capitol Hill dealmaking. And that’s a problem. He needs a kick in the pants, and I try to administer one in my Labor Day piece for The New Republic.
(P.S. I still think the Atlantic should move back to Boston.)
True. But near-invisibility is also true of most of the Cabinet. Except for Blinken, Garland, and Buttigieg -- who relentlessly markets the infrastructure bill -- where are they? An occasional moment for Yellen, Haaland, or Becerra, on appropriate topics... Even SecDef Austin rarely appears in public or is quoted by the press. Are they drawn into discussions of policy? Do they make proposals of their own/their staffs? Is it possible that Biden wants the spotlight entirely on himself?? Their diversity, and the themes they represent, should be helpful on the campaign trail, but...
If I felt ignored, I'd take long weekends, too.