The Dakotas Need a Master of the Horse...Stat!

<![CDATA[In Ancient Rome, there was a little-used title that was bestowed on someone to serve as the 'break glass in case of need of an emergency dictator' leader. If the tyrant was away for any extended period of time, the Master of the Horse stepped in and assumed the role of the dictator, with all the rights and privileges, until the main guy returned. As it turns out, both North and South Dakota are now vulnerable to a siege led by Minnesota's embittered governor, Tim Walz.As President-Elect Donald Trump continues to make announcements filling out his cabinet and senior staff, the poaching has been relatively evenly split between members of Congress and the governor ranks. Marco Rubio in the Senate has been tapped for Secretary of State, but so far, he's the only member of the upper chamber chosen. Included in the first wave of picks, was South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem going to Homeland Security. Last night at Mar-A-Lago, Trump teased an upcoming pick without wanting to name who the person was or for which office. Then, sensing he was on a roll, he let fly with the news anyway. Now granted, I'm in orbit around Hugh Hewitt's larger world, having produced his nationally-syndicated radio program for almost a quarter century. Hugh made his bones in law as a very capable Environmental Species attorney. The battles he waged and often won against the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Department, The Bureau of Land Management, and the overall department which oversees them, the Department of the Interior, are legendary around these parts. To us, of all the cabinet-level picks ranked in importance, Department of Defense and State are right up there, for obvious reasons. The Department of Justice is clearly front and center after being politicized and weaponized over the last four years. But right there among them, if this country is going to unleash the boom cycle it's capable of in order to grow our way out of economic doldrums is the Department of the Interior. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum has been chosen for that job, and this is among the finest of picks Donald Trump has made yet. It had been speculated almost since the day Burgum suspended his campaign for the presidency and endorsed Donald Trump that he would be on the short list for some cabinet pick, perhaps the Department of Energy, which would also have been a natural fit. North Dakota is an energy state. It's rich with natural resources, and could be one of the catalyst states to cause an energy-led explosion of jobs and economic prosperity if only the federal government could get out of the way. But Burgum going to DOI is an inspired choice. The Department of the Interior is currently home to 70,000 federal employees. Think of that. 70,000. The Bureau of Land Management oversees 640 million acres of federal land. Alaska is the largest state in the Union by far.  It's about 365 million acres. If overlaid on top of the continental United States, this is how big it is.]]>