What's In & Out

Matthew Yglesias observes, in No Jews:

It seems Barack Obama is giving us a cabinet with no Jewish members. Plenty of Jews in non-cabinet top spots (Axelrod, Summers, Orszag) so I guess we’ll have to just run things from behind the scenes.

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And of course you can add Rahm to the list of influential, but not in the cabinet, Jews. Basically, it’s a chock full ‘o Jews White House staff and a non-Jewish cabinet.

But who does rate a Cabinet post? Ray LaHood, who is Lebanese. See Obama chooses Illinois Republican as Transportation secretary. As the Chicago Tribune notes, Barack Obama reportedly picking Ray LaHood for transportation chief:

A product of Peoria's large Lebanese-American community, LaHood is Catholic and one of the few Arab-American members of Congress. He is the first Arab-American to be chosen for Obama's Cabinet.

Happy Hanukkah!