EMAIL DETAILS

By the way, today is Mike Lesutis' birthday. I assume everyone in Delaware celebrates each other's birthdays... I noticed Ciro Poppiti wished Mike well via Facebook - I guess that's one of the official duties for the Register of Wills.Good to hang out yesterday.
Bloomberg


Obama Considering ex-Pfizer CEO, Google’s Schmidt for Commerce
March 09, 2011, 3:37 PM EST


By Hans Nichols


March 9 (Bloomberg) -- Obama administration officials are
considering former Pfizer Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Kindler
as well Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt to replace Gary Locke as Commerce
secretary, a signal that President Barack Obama may look to business to
fill a top trade job, according to a person familiar with the process.
Ron Kirk, the U.S. trade representative, also is a
potential candidate for the job, according to another person. Both
spoke on condition of anonymity because no decisions have been made.
Obama said today that he is nominating Locke to
be the next U.S. ambassador to China, succeeding Jon Huntsman, whose
resignation is effective April 30.
“The president will consider a range of qualified
candidates, but we are at a very early stage in the process and no
decisions have been made,” said Jen Psaki, an administration
spokeswoman, referring to the Commerce post.
Obama’s aides have been seeking to counter
criticism from some corporate leaders over administration policies on
regulation and health care. On Dec. 15, after a 4 1/2-hour meeting with
20 company executives, Obama said they were making “good progress” on
establishing closer cooperation between government and business.
As top jobs have opened up in the second half of
his term, Obama has considered candidates from outside politics and
academia. His new chief of staff, William Daley, was an executive at
JPMorgan Chase & Co. before joining the administration in January.
The Commerce secretary will have a significant
role in Obama’s drive to double U.S. exports to $3.1 trillion by 2014
from $1.6 trillion in 2009.
Confirmation Process
A nominee from the business community likely
would face scrutiny about corporate practices during Senate confirmation
hearings, possibly drawing out the process. Kirk, by contrast, has
already been vetted by the administration and was confirmed by the
Senate for his current job.
White House press secretary Jay Carney said that
the president was focused on naming a replacement for Huntsman and that
there isn’t a timetable for selecting a new Commerce secretary.
Kirk declined to comment today when asked by
reporters at the U.S. Capitol about his prospects of getting the
Commerce Department job.
Kindler, 55, was CEO of New York-based Pfizer,
the world’s largest drugmaker, for four years before stepping down in
December. He also was part of a presidential advisory board on
increasing U.S. exports that Obama named last July. He didn’t return two
messages left at his home.
Schmidt, 55, announced in January that he plans
to step down as Google CEO in April and become executive chairman. He
led the Mountain View, California-based company for 10 years. A Google
spokeswoman declined to comment.
He has regularly consulted with Obama on economic
matters, including a December meeting with 20 executives in Washington
and a smaller dinner with a dozen leaders of the technology industry
last month at the California home of venture capitalist John Doerr.
Norman Mineta, who served as Commerce secretary
in President Bill Clinton’s administration, said Schmidt would be a good
candidate for Obama to consider.
“He is the kind of a person who has the vision
and the drive to be able to be a good secretary of commerce,” Mineta
said in an interview with Bloomberg Television.

--With assistance from Peter Cook and Mark Drajem in Washington and
Brian Womack in San Francisco. Editors: Joe Sobczyk, Leslie Hoffecker

To contact the reporter on this story: Hans Nichols in Washington at hnichols2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.n