RELEASE: Knapp announces "Libertarian Shadow Cabinet," appoints three

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
01/23/09
POC Thomas L. Knapp
admin@shadowcabinet.us

ST. LOUIS, Jan. 23 — As President Barack Obama completes his administration’s move into the White House and his cabinet appointees take their posts, the libertarian opposition gave American life today to a longstanding British tradition — the “shadow cabinet.”

“In the United Kingdom, the political party not in power normally appoints ’shadow ministers’ to speak to issues of public policy,” says Thomas L. Knapp, a candidate for the 2012 presidential nominations of two US libertarian parties. “Shadow cabinets serve two useful purposes — they show the public how the opposition would govern, and they prepare that opposition to eventually administer the offices they’ve shadowed.”

Knapp named the first three appointees, all long-time libertarian activists with experience in the relevant policy areas, to the Libertarian Shadow Cabinet today:

Secretary of Defense: Captain Charles Wilhoit (USN-Ret) of Tennessee. Captain Wilhoit’s naval career spanned WWII, Korea and Vietnam. He graduated the US Naval Academy in June of 1945 (Class of ‘46, for which he served as Corresponding Secretary for 38 years) and awaited deployment in the Pacific as of V-J Day. Over the course of his career he commanded various surface ships and a destroyer squadron. He has also served as Deputy Executive Director of the Naval Reserve Association and a national trustee of the US Naval Academy Alumni Association.


Secretary of the Treasury: Joe Cobb of Arizona. Cobb served as President Ronald Reagan’s Deputy Director, Office of Policy Information; Economic Advisor to the US State Department’s US Mission to the Organization of American States; Staff Director of the Congressional Joint Economic Committee; and Chief Economist for the US Senate Republican Policy Committee; Past President, National Association of Business Economists, National Capital Chapter; and John M. Olin Senior Fellow in Economics at The Heritage Foundation.


Director, Office of National Drug Control Policy: Steve Kubby of California. A three-decade survivor of a normally terminal form of cancer, Kubby is both a living testament to the safety and efficacy of medical marijuana and a long-time activist for an end to the federal government’s unconstitutional and unconscionable “war on drugs.” He’s the author of two books on drug policy reform, a co-author of the nation’s first “medical marijuana” law, California’s Proposition 215, and national director of the American Medical Marijuana Association.


While creating the Libertarian Shadow Cabinet in his capacity as a candidate for the presidency, Knapp emphasized that he expects it to outlive his own campaign. “The Shadow Cabinet is a tool for the libertarian movement to show America what’s possible if they make the right choices,” he says. “I welcome the advice, support and participation of other libertarians and libertarian presidential candidates in composing the cabinet, and intend to spin it off of my own campaign and to fully independent status as soon as possible.”

Libertarian Shadow Cabinet: www.shadowcabinet.us