From a Camp to the Cabinet

When President Clinton was elected in 1992 he promised that his Cabinet would look like America. He has been true to that pledge with one major exception, which he finally addressed last week by nominating former Rep. Norman Mineta of San Jose to be secretary of Commerce. Mineta will be the first Asian American to serve in a presidential Cabinet.

The Senate Commerce Committee is scheduled to open Mineta’s confirmation hearing Wednesday. Because he was a popular figure in Congress, speedy approval is expected. His tenure will be only six months long, but he says that’s “a virtual eternity in the new economy.”

Mineta has the right experience and expertise. In addition to his public career, he has been a senior vice president of Lockheed-Martin Corp. since 1995. Clinton tried to enlist him in 1992 as his first secretary of Transportation, but Mineta elected to remain in the House to become Transportation Committee chairman.

Mineta’s selection also carries great symbolic impact. As a 10-year-old after the outbreak of World War II, Mineta, with his family, was removed from his San Jose home and sent to an internment camp in Wyoming. In 1988, Mineta helped pass a bill to provide reparations to survivors among the 120,000 Japanese Americans sent to the camps.

Mineta served in the Army and later became mayor of San Jose. A distinguished career in Congress, 1975-1995, followed. When he introduced Mineta Thursday, Clinton said, “Norm Mineta’s family story tells a lot about the promise of the American dream.”

Critics of the president’s commitment to diversity in his administration seem to assume, wrongly, that diversity and quality are mutually exclusive. In Mineta, Clinton found his best choice.