December 13, 2016 10:09 AM UTC

Rick Perry Nominated for Energy Secretary

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Perry’s selection as Energy Secretary is good news for Democrats in one regard. As “The Fix” reports:

Almost everyone — including Harry Reid — expected West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin (D) to take a job in the Trump administration. Tuesday, Manchin said he was staying put…

…Manchin’s surprise decision to stay in the Senate and, presumably, to seek a second term in 2018 is a major break for Democrats who badly needed one. Had Manchin abandoned his seat, there is a roughly zero percent chance Democrats would have held it in November 2018. Manchin is a popular former governor who is regarded as apolitical, a necessary status in a state that Donald Trump won by 42(!) points in 2016. Even with his decision to run again, Manchin could face a real challenge from Reps. Evan Jenkins or Dave McKinley or state Attorney General Patrick Morrissey. But the incumbent Democrat will start a race against any one of that trio as a favorite.

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On a presidential debate stage five years ago, Rick Perry blanked on the Energy Department’s name when trying to include it in a list of agencies he promised to abolish — memorably concluding with “oops.”

Now Donald Trump has chosen the former Texas governor to lead the sprawling department, which oversees the security of the nation’s nuclear weapons and has played major roles in President Barack Obama’s climate agenda and nuclear deal with Iran. Three sources close to the transition confirmed the choice Tuesday…

…The conservative Heritage Foundation last month urged the next president to eliminate vast swaths of the department, including all the research, development, regulatory and loan programs that the Obama administration has used to drive advances in green energy, as well as its 700-million-barrel Strategic Petroleum Reserve. And last week, Trump’s transition team asked DOE to supply the names of all agency employees who had worked on Obama’s climate initiatives, a request that Democrats and former staffers denounced as a “witch hunt.”

Perry, the longest-serving governor in Texas history, also had the Energy Department in his sights during the 2012 presidential campaign, when he called for eliminating it as part of his program to shrink the federal government.

So, uh, Rick Perry is going to head up a department that he does not think should exist. This is like hiring Denver Broncos legend John Elway as the President of the Oakland Raiders.