Eye on 2010

McHugh is a Republican, one of just three in New York's 29-member U.S. House delegation, but it's possible that the Democrats could pick off his 23rd District, an area of rural upstate New York that historically has voted more Republican than Democratic.

But in the 2008 election, President Obama defeated John McCain in New York's 23rd by a margin of 52 percent to 47 percent, according to my calculations.

This nomination reminds me a bit of President George W. Bush's selection in February 2002 of Democratic Rep. Tony P. Hall (1979-2002) to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture. While there was no disputing that Hall was superbly well-qualified for the post -- Hall's humanitarian efforts in Congress earned him the nickname "Mr. Hunger" -- it wasn't lost on Republican strategists that Hall's Dayton-area district, which had voted for Bush in the 2000 election, could go Republican if Hall wasn't defending it.

And sure enough, Hall's retirement paved the way for Republican Michael R. Turner, the former mayor of Dayton, to enter the race and easily capture the seat for the GOP. Turner handily won a fourth term last year.

Obama also reached into the Senate to fill some executive posts, namely Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York for Secretary of State and Ken Salazar of Colorado for Interior Secretary. But they were replaced by Democrats because those states had Democratic governors with Senate appointment power.

Obama had wanted Republican Sen. Judd Gregg of New Hampshire to be Commerce Secretary. Gregg had asked for and received assurances that New Hampshire Democratic Gov. John Lynch would appoint a Republican successor so as to not alter the partisan composition of the Senate. That became a moot point after Gregg took himself out of consideration for the Commerce post.