Obama is poised to announce White House Chief of Staff Jack Lew as his pick for Treasury Secretary Thursday—and critics are pointing to the tableau of white men who have so far been nominated to lead the State and Defense Departments and the CIA as well. In her Washington Post column, Ruth Marcus laments what could have been: Obama flanked by Susan Rice at State and Michèle Flournoy at Defense. The LA Times argues that Obama’s second-term cabinet “may not meet his own diversity standards.”
We’ll talk with Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., about Vice President Biden’s continued meetings with parties on all sides of the gun control debate, including a meeting with the NRA Thursday.
NBC’s Atia Abawi joins us to talk about Afghan President Hamid Karzai’s meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta Thursday in Washington. Plus, Politico’s Roger Simon weighs in on why Hagel’s the right person to lead the Pentagon: “Hagel doesn’t believe in needless wars or endless wars or wars as our first choice,” Simon writes in his column Thursday.
Obama’s intended nominee for Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew, will hit the ground running on the debt ceiling fiasco, which could come to a head as early as February 15, according to a report by the Bipartisan Policy Center. Could a quick-fix answer come from invoking the 14th Amendment or minting a trillion dollar coin?
It’s Oscar nominations day, and we’re zeroing in on one theme that’s impressed critics in this year’s top films: between “Lincoln,” “Argo,” and “Zero Dark Thirty,” politics is this year’s golden ticket in Hollywood.
Plus, msnbc’s Richard Lui is “drilling down” on…your taxes! Think it’s time for a tax code overhaul? So does the I.R.S.’s Taxpayer Advocate.
MS NOW staff