Colorado Senator Ken Salazar has reportedly agreed to be Obama’s pick for Secretary of the Interior. All that’s left for the former director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources is to pass a background check.

Pero the question always remains: Is having a Latino in the cabinet more important than having a progressive in there?

Salazar certainly has set himself up by his past alliances with other star Latino politicians ::cough cough:: like Alberto Gonzales.

Salazar’s most high profile media moment since being elected Senator in 2004 came during the 2005 Senate confirmation hearings of then-Attorney General nominee Alberto Gonzales . Salazar, who was one of 6 of Democrats supporting the Gonzalez nomination, accompanied, sat next to and spoke on behalf of Gonzales as he (Gonzales) was bombarded by questions about the now infamous torture memos he wrote, which are widely believed to have enabled the acts of humiliation and torture perpetrated at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo prisons. While several Republican and Democratic Senators, including Sens. Kennedy, Leahy and Judiciary Committee Chair Specter voiced repudiation and disgust about Gonzales’ role, Salazar smiled and said, “It is also an honor and privilege for me to appear before you this morning to make an introduction of Judge Alberto Gonzales” adding that he thought that “…Gonzales is better qualified than many recent attorneys general.”

What’s the saying? Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres.

Via / Adventures in the Coconut Caucus, Denver Post, Of America