Obama asks a scientist to run Energy Department?

President-elect Obama has allegedly asked the physics Nobel Laureate Steven Chu to head up the Department of Energy. A lot of scientists I know are praising this decision. I am tentatively supportive of this decision. While Chu's understanding of science is of course rock solid, being the Secretary of a government Department is a political job. Now, Chu does have political experience. In 2004 he was appointed to be the Director of the Lawrence Berkeley Lab in California, was chair of the Stanford physics department before that, and is also involved with some international projects that do involve considerable political savvy. Chu doesn't seem to have experience in the American government's political system, and I'm weighing in my head how much of a concern that is. The current Energy Secretary, Samuel W. Bodman, had quite a bit of experience before taking on the role, and the Secretary before him was ...