Unusual self-promotion
Secretary Wolff's use of state car to lobby for federal post might have signaled failure
The Patriot-News (Pennsylvania)
December 18, 2008
[Pennsylvania] State Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff's promise Monday to leave his state vehicle in the garage when he's off seeking new employment may well have signaled his realization that he wasn't going to get the top ag post in the Obama administration.
From the time that word leaked out -- largely from Wolff himself -- that he was on the short list to be named U.S. secretary of agriculture, it wasn't clear whether President-elect Barack Obama considered him to be a serious candidate or simply was extending a courtesy to Gov. Ed Rendell, who included Wolff among the Pennsylvanians he recommended for federal posts.
We still don't know, but Obama's selection Tuesday of former Gov. Tom Vilsack of Iowa -- ironically a native Pennsylvanian -- indicates he was seeking a nominee with a higher national profile. And if the president-elect was paying attention, Wolff's unusual self-promotion for the Cabinet post, which included a personal lobbying trip to Washington last week in his taxpayer-funded state car, might have raised a red flag.
Chuck Ardo, the governor's spokesman, offered the excuse that the travel ban doesn't apply to the "personal business" of cabinet secretaries who drive a state car as part of their compensation package. But such disregard for the spirit of the policy, at least, surely embarrassed Rendell. Mercifully, Wolff won't get the same opportunity with the new president.
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