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Janet Napolitano to Leave Department of Homeland Security

Will this usher in the second coming of Joe Lieberman?

by
Adam Chandler
July 12, 2013
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Last month, we reported that former Democratic/Independent/Republican-manque Senator Joe Lieberman’s retirement was a short-lived affair when he took up a post as senior counsel at the law firm Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman less than six months after bidding adieu to the Senate.

Today comes news that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is resigning her position after four years to head up the University of California college system.

Napolitano, just the third person to lead the 10-year-old department, told her senior staff Friday she would be leaving for California. She will become the president of the University of California system, which includes UCLA and the University of California, Berkeley, among other campuses. The University of California also announced Napolitano’s nomination to be the 20th president of the statewide system.

Does this open the door for another jolt of Joementum? Lieberman has deep ties with the DHS, in addition to winning its Distinguished Service Award last December, he was one of the driving forces behind the creation of the 9/11 Commission, which ultimately birthed the Department of Homeland Security. He also testified at the hearings on the Boston Marathon bombings in May.

Since it seems likely that President Obama’s next DHS appointee would be his last, wouldn’t it be if Joe came back like a salmon returning to its birthplace.

Adam Chandler was previously a staff writer at Tablet. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Atlantic, Slate, Esquire, New York, and elsewhere. He tweets @allmychandler.