Screw the ideology thing, because: urgent need to get stuff done

By David Siders @ Politico.com, Aug. 21

[....] Interviews with more than a dozen Democrats familiar with his transition process describe an effort by his campaign to assemble a center-left amalgamation of personnel designed to prioritize speed over ideology in responding to the coronavirus and the resulting economic ruin. Think Susan Rice, but also Elizabeth Warren. Pete Buttigieg, but also Karen Bass.

“I think those [ideological] distinctions are going to be a little hard to draw in this administration,” said Matt Bennett, whose center-left group Third Way, like others, is developing lists of candidates to propose to Biden’s advisers for sub-Cabinet and other roles.

One Democratic strategist familiar with Biden’s work to form a government said, “Does it mean that the chief of staff won’t be [longtime Biden advisers] Ron Klain or Steve Ricchetti or something? No, but it does mean you’re going to see some unusual suspects in the government, I think.”

Among those advising Biden on the transition are centrist-minded establishment figures such as Tony Blinken, the former deputy national security adviser in the Obama-Biden White House, and Lawrence Summers, the ex-Treasury secretary and bane of progressives who said last week that he will not go into the administration. Ricchetti, Biden’s former chief of staff, is a former lobbyist.

But Biden is also taking economic advice from Warren, Democrats familiar with the campaign say. She is widely viewed as a potential Treasury secretary in a Biden administration. It did not go unnoticed when Biden in April called corporate America “greedy as hell.” He has also proposed raising the corporate tax rate [....]