From The New York Times:
“President Obama intends to nominate Jim Leach, a former Republican congressman from Iowa who is now a professor at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, the White House said on Wednesday.[…]”
I think this is a great appointment. Leach, who represented IA-2 (numbered IA-1 from 1977 to 2003, according to the Wikipedia article on Leach) for 30 years until being upset by David Loebsack, was pretty liberal for today’s Republican Party, is a strong supporter of education and the humanities (the Times article mentions that he “founded and was co-chairman of the Congressional Humanities Caucus” in the House), and was among the higher-profile Obamacans. This is a good way for President Obama to pick a highly qualified guy who will get a good reception among his former colleagues in Congress, reward a supporter, and strengthen the meme of bipartisanship all at the same time.
[Title edited; “NEH” had been erroneously typed as “NEA”]