It’s an odd couple of the first order: When President-elect Barack Obama takes office in two weeks, he will find Robert M. “Mike” Duncan occupying a presidentially appointed post.
Name sound familiar? That would be the same Mike Duncan who is running for re-election as chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Duncan is a board member on the Tennessee Valley Authority, one of seven directors appointed by President Bush to oversee one of the largest energy and economic development agencies in the country, created by an act of Congress in 1933. The board is appointed by the president, and Duncan will hold onto his seat until May 2011, assuming he doesn’t resign his post first.
Chris Taylor, a Duncan spokesman, says that’s unlikely, given Duncan’s commitment to the organization, which plays an important role in Duncan’s home state of Kentucky.
“This is something [Duncan] takes very seriously and he believes in,” Taylor said.
So when Obama needs advice about development projects throughout the South, he can take solace that one of the top men in the know could be just a few short miles away, sitting at his desk at 310 First Street Southeast.
Of course, Obama may need to interrupt Duncan from his other post, plotting strategy that would knock the Democrat out of the White House in four years.
–Reid Wilson