President Obama's choice of Jack Lew as Treasury secretary means that the prediction I made in my "Office Pool 2013" column published on December 17, 2012 was three for three. From the column:
The most bitter confirmation battle will be a) Chuck Hagel's nomination to be defense secretary, opposed by pro-Israel groups alarmed at his record b) John Brennan's nomination to be CIA director, opposed by anti-waterboarding activists on the left and right c) Jacob Lew's nomination to be Treasury secretary, unexpectedly mired in questions over his post-NYU, pre-Obama administration work for Citigroup.
Hagel, Brennan, and Lew were all nominated for the jobs I predicted they would be in the column. Whether that's good for the country is a separate question. None of the three was a total surprise pick, but in each case there were other candidates whose names were being floated.
It almost makes up for my item touting Senator Toomey as Mitt Romney's running mate. I guess the takeway is that my sources in the Obama White House are better than my sources in the Romney campaign.