SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Former U.S. Rep. Tim Roemer is being mentioned by fellow Democrats as one of the individuals President-elect Obama might tap as he assembles his Cabinet.
Roemer, who represented the South Bend area in the U.S. House from 1991 to 2003, is “certainly being considered for high office in the Obama administration,” said former Indiana Congressman Lee Hamilton.
Like Hamilton — who represented southern Indiana from 1965 to 1999 — Roemer is a former member of the 9/11 Commission, which investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.
He also serves on a federal committee to curb the proliferation of nuclear weapons and is president of the Center for National Policy, a Washington-based think tank.
But most visibly, he’s been a vocal Obama supporter since the primary season.
“Tim did some marvelous work for Obama throughout the campaign, not just in Indiana but in many places as well,” Hamilton told the South Bend Tribune for a story published Sunday.
Roemer, who campaigned for Obama in 11 states throughout the year, served as a foreign policy adviser to Obama’s campaign alongside Hamilton.
Roemer said he’s heard the rumors that he’s being considered for Obama’s administration, but up until now, he said he’s been “entirely focused and consumed” on the campaign.
“I have not looked one minute past midnight of last night,” he said Wednesday, hours after Obama’s election victory. “I would highly recommend Lee Hamilton and Evan Bayh.”
Hamilton, who is 77, said he isn’t likely to take a job in Obama’s administration,
“Oh, I think I’m too old,” he said. “I have a good relationship with Obama, but I’m not at an age where I can take over a major responsibility.”
In 1988 and 1992, Hamilton was rumored as a vice presidential nominee, and when Bill Clinton was elected president in 1992, he was also on speculation lists as a secretary of state candidate based on his lengthy background in foreign affairs.
Bayh, a popular two-term Senate Democrat who was rumored to have been on Obama’s vice presidential short list, is focused on his work in the Senate, said his spokesman Eric Kleiman.
“He really does love his day job,” Kleiman said.
The state’s other U.S. senator, Republican Richard Lugar, has already removed himself from speculation that he might serve in Obama’s Cabinet.
During an October visit to the University of Notre Dame, Lugar was asked by students if he was interested in a post in an Obama administration.
“And I said, ‘No, I’m not,”’ Lugar said last month. “Because really, from the time that I came back from the Navy ... I’ve wanted to be my own boss, an independent spirit.”
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