The Special Interests Start Lining Up With Their Hands Out

Any surprise?

...Hispanic leaders said they provided the margin of victory in Florida, New Mexico, Colorado and Nevada.

“We feel like we had a big stake in the election and that’s what prompted this historic turnout,” said Janet Murguía, president of the National Council of La Raza. The advocacy group did wait long to begin publicly pushing the new president-elect to recognize this support with key White House and Cabinet positions.

“At some point in the first term we would definitely expect to see an effort to move responsible immigration reform,” Ms. Murguía said. “It would be a big mistake not to act on this important priority.”

The Hispanics aren't the only ones with their hands out. The ladies are starting to gripe as well:

Barack Obama’s Cabinet Choices Could Insult Women

If the following widely circulated flow chart (posted by my colleague Paul Bedard and making its way around Washington at gigabyte speed) is anything close to true, many women who voted for Barack Obama as president are destined for disappointment. The chart indicates that there are two female top choices for Obama cabinet positions: Penny Pritzker at Commerce and Janet Napolitano at Justice. Neither position would indicate progress for women, as there have been women in both posts in the past. IMHO, Obama owes it to women and women of color, whose votes he secured in historic proportions, to put them in cabinet posts they've not yet held, such as Treasury and Defense.

If, and again it's a big if, this flow chart of unknown origins does reflect the Obama plan, women ought to be taking to the streets in fury. George W. Bush, no friend of women, according to most progressive women, has had seven women serving for part or all of his second term as president.

These two won't be the last. You have to remember that the Democrat Party is not a unified party of like-minded people. It's a party made up of various special interest groups, each with their own agenda and those agendas often can not all be accomodated at the same time. Something's gonna have to give and Obama will have to decide which of these many special interest groups are rewarded and which are ignored.

He will have a real juggling act as he staffs up and plans his own agenda.