Definition of Kitchen Cabinet in Politics

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In colloquial usage, “kitchen cabinet” refers to any group of trusted friends and colleagues, especially when it comes to the closest unofficial advisers to a president or presidential candidate. In the 20th century, a good example of a kitchen cabinet would be the circle of advisers that President John F. Kennedy would fall back on. Kennedy respected intellectuals and former government officials such as George Kennan, one of the architects of the Cold War. And he turned to historians and academics for informal advice on pressing foreign policy as well as domestic policy issues. In Israel, the term “kitchen cabinet” is often used to translate the Hebrew term המטבחון (HaMitbahon or HaMitbachon), which literally translates to “the kitchenette.” The term refers to a subset of Israel`s security cabinet, made up of the prime minister`s most trusted advisers, and derives from former Prime Minister Golda Meir`s habit of holding meetings of her inner ministerial circle at home around cakes she had personally baked. Although subsequent prime ministers generally did not maintain the tradition of literally cooking for their ministers, the feeling of an intimate group of trusted advisers has remained relevant since Meir`s tenure as prime minister. Foreign Minister Martin Van Buren was a widower and, since he had no wife to get involved in the Eaton controversy, he managed not to get tangled. In 1831, like Secretary of War John Eaton, he resigned as minister to give Jackson a reason to reorganize his cabinet and remove Calhoun`s allies. Jackson then fired Calhounites Samuel D. Ingham, John Branch, and John M.

Berrien. Van Buren, whom Jackson had already indicated he wanted to run for vice president in 1832, remained in Washington as a member of the kitchen cabinet until he was appointed minister of Great Britain. Eaton was later appointed governor of the Territory of Florida. At the beginning of the war, he actually spoke openly about how this was God`s plan and that it was some kind of divine mission for him. He is a man who, instead of meeting his main counselors, would meet early in the morning with some of his spiritual advisors, they are pastors who are now very powerful in a kind of “kitchen cabinet.” The kitchen cabinet was a term used by political opponents of U.S. President Andrew Jackson to describe his ginger group, the collection of unofficial advisers he consulted in parallel with the U.S. cabinet (the “salon cabinet”) after his cabinet purge at the end of the Eaton affair and his breakup with Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1831. [1] [2] The term was introduced into British politics to describe the inner circle of British Prime Minister Harold Wilson during his term of office (1964-1970 and 1974-1976); Before Tony Blair, Wilson was labour`s longest-serving prime minister. Members included Marcia Williams, George Wigg, Joe Haines and Bernard Donoughue. The term was then used, particularly under Tony Blair, to marginalise traditional democratic cabinet structures, relying much more on a select group of unelected advisers and allies. Examples of this practice include Blair`s use of Councillor Andrew Adonis prior to his appointment to Cabinet.

Traditionally, the role of education policy creation in policy formulation would have rested with the Secretary of State for Education and Qualifications. [Citation needed] The concept of the “kitchen cabinet” existed long after Andrew Jackson`s presidency. Abraham Lincoln had his own narrow circle of advisers, many of whom were not actually political figures. Lincoln corresponded with editors of newspapers such as Horace Greeley of the New York Tribune; James Gordon Bennett of the New York Herald; and Henry Raymond of the New York Times. These men all gave advice to the president and became known as Lincoln`s own kitchen cabinet. The only man who had any real political stature in Jackson`s cabinet was Martin Van Buren, who was appointed Secretary of State. Van Buren had been a very influential figure in Politics in New York State, and his ability to align northern voters with Jackson`s border appeal helped Jackson win the presidency. The term was first used under the presidency of Andrew Jackson. Jackson took office in 1829 after a gruelling and contentious election. The president found members of his cabinet ineffective (some say that in some sort of power game, the president deliberately appointed dull men to ministerial positions. As a result, Jackson turned to his own trusted friends when seeking advice in politics. Informal group of advisers to the head of government of a country, as opposed to the official cabinet.

And in an obvious effort to ensure that power rested with the president, and not with others in government, Jackson appointed rather obscure or ineffective men for most positions in his cabinet. In later presidential administrations, the term kitchen cabinet took on a less mocking meaning and was simply used to refer to a president`s informal advisers. For example, when Abraham Lincoln was president, he was known to correspond with editors Horace Greeley (of the New York Tribune), James Gordon Bennett (of the New York Herald), and Henry J. Raymond (of the New York Times). Given the complexity of the issues lincoln handled, the advice (and political support) of prominent editors was both welcome and extremely helpful. The kitchen cabinet was a term used by political opponents of U.S. President Andrew Jackson to describe the collection of unofficial advisers he consulted alongside the U.S. cabinet after his purge of the cabinet at the end of the Eaton affair and his break with Vice President John C. Calhoun in 1831. In an unprecedented firing of five of the eight cabinet officials midway through his first term, Jackson fired Calhoun`s allies, Samuel D.

Ingham, John Branch and John M. Berrien, as well as his own supporters, Secretary of State Martin Van Buren and Secretary of War John Eaton. Jackson, however, kept Van Buren in Washington as Britain`s minister. Jackson`s cabinet included his longtime political allies Martin Van Buren, Francis Preston Blair, Amos Kendall, William B. Lewis, Andrew Jackson Donelson, John Overton and his new attorney general Roger B. Taney. As journalists, Blair and Kendall were particularly briefed by competing newspapers. Blair was Kendall`s successor as editor of the Jacksonian Argus of Western America, Kentucky`s prominent pro-New Court newspaper.

Jackson brought Blair to Washington, D.C., to counter Calhounite Duff Green, editor of the United States Telegraph, with a new newspaper, the Globe. Lewis had been quartermaster under Jackson during the War of 1812; Andrew Donelson was Jackson`s adopted son and private secretary; and Overton had been Andrew Jackson`s friend and business partner since the 1790s. Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd`s reliance on a kitchen cabinet (Treasurer Wayne Swan, Rudd`s successor Julia Gillard, and Treasury Secretary Lindsay Tanner) was a factor in his removal from the post of prime minister. The so-called kitchen cabinet lasted until 1831. This year, a series of scandals within the government led to the resignations of Foreign Minister Martin van Buren and Secretary of War John Eaton. The president ordered the entire cabinet to resign and appointed new, more trustworthy men to fill their seats. As a result, the kitchen cabinet has lost its importance. In modern use, the kitchen cabinet in general has lost the suggestion of inadequacy. Modern presidents are generally expected to rely on a wide range of people for advice, and the idea that “unofficial” individuals would advise the president is not considered inappropriate, as was the case in Jackson`s time. In the 21st century, many of Donald Trump`s critics have complained that the president listens too carefully to his “kitchen cabinet” and is isolating himself from the kind of highly experienced policymakers who could have given him better advice.

Jackson has always been a controversial figure, thanks in large part to his violent past and strange temperament. And opposition newspapers, suggesting that there was something shameful about the president receiving a lot of unofficial advice, offered the pun, kitchen cabinet, to describe the informal group. Jackson`s official cabinet was sometimes called the Salon Cabinet. The first known appearance of the term is in the correspondence of Nicholas Biddle, the head of the Bank of the United States, who wrote about presidential advisers that “cooking. predominate on the show. The first appearance in the publication was made by Mississippi Senator George Poindexter in a September 13 Calhounite Telegraph article. In March 1832, in which he defended his vote against Van Buren as Britain`s minister: Dov Zakheim, former deputy director of defense, argued in Foreign Policy that Trump relied on “amateurs” rather than experts. The article, titled “Beware of Trump`s Kitchen Cabinet,” claimed that while other presidents had kitchen cabinets in the past, the Trump presidency had pushed executive agencies further than any previous administration. Zakheim wrote: Much later, John F. Kennedy had his own kitchen cabinet. JFK`s advisers included members of his own family, including his brother Robert Kennedy.

Ted Sorensen, a lawyer and speechwriter, was another of the president`s closest advisers, although he did not serve in the firm.