Opinion: Obama taps Seattle police chief as drug czar

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Another ex-Clinton administration official apparently signed up by Barack Obama’s new White House team:

Gil Kerlikowske, currently the chief of police in Seattle, is set to be named as Obama’s so-called drug czar, officially director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, according to Fox News.

Kerlikowske has been chief of the northwestern capital of rain since 2000. But before that during the late Clinton years he was deputy director of the Justice Department’s division on community-oriented policing.

In that job he met someone named Eric Holder, now the recently confirmed attorney general for Obama.

See how this all ties together?

If confirmed by the Senate, Kerlikowske will oversee an office with some 100 employees and a 2009 requested budget of some $420 million.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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