August 14, 2024
J.B. PRITZKER AS NEXT U.S. TREASURY SECRETARY? THE PETER PRINCIPLE AND TIM WALZ
There is disrespect. There is embarrassment. There is humiliation. There is shame, being rebuked, a feeling of inadequacy. And then there is the ultimate insult of being passed-over for the 2024 Democratic vice-presidential nomination by Tim Walz, the non-entity governor of Minnesota.
For JB Pritzker, the billionaire governor (D) of Illinois, that’s the “pit of diss.” Pritzker is narcissistic, as are most politicians, deems himself beloved and powerful and is obsessed with getting to a higher office. Walz just waltzed over that ambition.
Pritzker will be age 60 next January. He is worth over $4 billion, has been governor for 6 years, is up for re-election in 2026, and has no more conquests to achieve other than the White House. Until Aug. 5, when Kamala Harris picked Walz for VP, Pritzker had two pathways thereto: (1) Get picked by Harris as VP, spend a small fraction of his fortune to elect the putative Harris-Pritzker (D) ticket, and then wait for events to unfold in 2028 and/or 2032. Or (2) Enjoy – or probably not – 4 years of a Trump presidency ending in 2028, get re-elected governor, and then spend a much bigger chunk of his fortune to beat J.D. Vance in 2028.
Without question Harris has locked-in the Dem nomination in 2028. If she is elected in 2024 she will be the incumbent in 4 years; if she loses narrowly she will be the prohibitive comeback frontrunner in 2028. That slams the door for 8 years for Pritzker plus CA governor Gavin Newsom and MI governor Gretchen Whitmer, both termed-out in 2026, and senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ) Harris’s Plan B is to run for Newsom’s job in 2026. By 2032 the Big Four irrelevant has-beens. In that year Pritzker will be age 67, Newsom 65, Kelly 68, Whitmer 63; but both Harris and Walz will be 68.
Also getting kicked in the head as a VP is PA governor Josh Shapiro, who is a slashing and boisterous campaigner but would over-shadow Harris. He is Jewish and pro-Israel, meaning anti-Hamas, which is toxic to the Woke/Left base. Pritzker is Jewish, but less pro-Israel. Shapiro is termed-out in 2030 and maybe will be around in 2032.
BUT JB HAS A PLAN B: His consolation prize, his golden parachute is to be U.S. Treasury Secretary (SOT) in a Biden-Walz Administration. He would replace Janet Yellen, now age 78, who was a Biden pick, being a White Jewish woman; she was former Federal Reserve Board chair who famously declared in 2021 that inflation was “transitory.” Doing a better job than Yellen sets a very low bar. In addition to his wealth as heir to the Hilton Hotel chain, Pritzker made billions as an investment banker and was a huge Dem donor. He has more than a rudimentary understanding of the U.S. monetary and banking system.
If Pritzker wants Treasury he gets it. Harris is on video as insightfully declaring that inflation means that prices on consumer goods rise and everybody pays more – and that nobody likes that. No kidding? Never mind that’s what happened under Biden-Harris over the past 4 years – like by about 19.7 percent since 2021. But Harris-Walz is all about JOY and HOPE and CHANGE.
f victorious they will need cabinet members who know what they’re doing, like Pritzker – which means fixing failed policies.
There have been 78 treasury secretaries since Alexander Hamilton (1789-95). Some performed brilliantly and creatively under enormous stress, like Salmon Chase (1861-64), who had to borrow the money to finance the Civil War, William McAdoo (1913-18) likewise to finance WWI, and Henry Morgenthau Jr. (1934-45) likewise to combat the Great Depression and finance WWII.
A huge failure was Andrew Mellon (1921-32) who restricted money supply at the onset of the Depression (1929), choking business liquidity and forcing closures and massive unemployment. Yet the investment firm/bank he founded still prospers. Don Regan (1981-85) under Reagan fixed Carter’s inflation and ensuing recession.
Some SOTs went up and on to distinguished post-SOT careers. Chase became SCOTUS chief justice; McAdoo CA senator; Carter Glass (1918-20) VA senator (1920-46) and author of the Glass-Steagall Act which forbid banks from investing depositors’ money in the stock market (only in Treasury bonds and notes), a cause of the 1929-37 Depression; he also helped create the Federal Reserve System and the FDIC, which insured deposits.
Others were in it for personal gain and glory. William Crawford (1816-25) lost for president in 1824. John Sherman (1877-81), John Connally (1971-72) and James Baker (1985-88) sought to use SOT as a springboard to run for president. All failed. Connally was the ex-Texas governor (D) shot in the 1963 JFK assassination, making him an icon; he was a protégé of LBJ and their gameplan was for Connally to succeed LBJ as president in 1972. But then Johnson quit in 1968, and the gameplan was a Humphrey-Connally ticket. That went nowhere. Then Connally became Nixon’s SOT, switched parties, and the gameplan was to run in 1976 as a Republican. Gerald Ford squelched that. Connally went nowhere in 1980.
And then there are the capstoners – seeking a prestigious and lucrative exit. Lloyd Bentsen (1993-94) was the 1988 Dem VP nominee and TX senator 1971-93. He parachuted out of SOT to a lucrative retirement, as do all SOTs into the private financial sector. Pritzker is in the same spot. He’s weary of being gov and needs a capstone. SOT is it.
BATTLE FOR IL SUCCESSION: A Pritzker exit for Washington would have a significant ripple-effect in Illinois. A lot of ambitious politicians have a Plan A which focuses on getting elected governor post-Pritzker, either in 2026 or 2030. The Democratic aspirants are Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias (age 48), Attorney General Kwame Raoul (age 60), Comptroller Susana Mendoza (age 52) and Treasurer Mike Frerichs (age 51). But the Person OF Maximum Interest would be Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton (age 58), who would BECOME GOVERNOR if JB departed.
That creates a monumental Identity Crisis, similar to the party’s Kamala Problem:
Stratton, was the pick for LG in 2018. She is un-dumpable. After all, a Dem statewide ticket must counter-balance the pick of a White man with a Black woman.
Democrats cannot and will not dump her for 2026 but Giannoulias will run anyway and will win.
THE “PETER PRINCIPLE”: That was the title of a popular 1970s book which theorized that there is a ceiling on ambition and upward mobility in all human endeavors. The theory was, especially in the realm of business, government and politics, that one rises smoothly because of one’s competence but then abruptly stalls when reaching their level of INCOMPETENCE. There they stay – to the public’s detriment.
Biden was fine as an innocuous senator and VP, but he proved woefully inadequate for the presidency. There are similar doubts about Harris. But there are NO doubts about Walz, who hit his Peter Principle ceiling in 2018 when elected MN governor after 12 years in Congress. Walz won in 2018 with 41.6 percent BECAUSE two women ran against him – AG Lori Swanson and state rep Erin Murphy. They got a combined 56.7 percent. If only one ran Walz would have lost.
The MN Democrats, once known for such heavyweights as Hubert Humphrey, Eugene McCarthy, Harold Stassen and (I choke on this) Walter Mondale, all presidential losers, are now reduced to pipsqueak opportunists and vacillators like Walz. But voters get what they deserve.
Read more Analysis & Opinion from Russ Stewart at Russstewart.com
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