Cabinet

Gov.-elect Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. announced yesterday the nomination of former state Sen. Christopher J. McCabe as secretary of the Department of Human Resources, which oversees government funding of 24 local social service agencies and more than 200 nonprofit groups. Ehrlich also named Sharon R. Pinder as director of the Governor's Office of Minority Affairs, Jervis S. Finney as counsel and criminal justice adviser to the governor, and Dilip Paliath as legislative officer for the Office of Legislative Affairs.

Dissecting the ''diversity'' issue, speculating who's conservative or liberal, a friend of Hillary or not, the media has missed a critical point about a number of Bill Clinton's top appointees.It is that this president-elect has been able to draw on a constellation of remarkable talent -- people who, like Mr. Clinton himself, proved their mettle at the state and local level but were closed off from federal executive service for the life of the Reagan-Bush administrations.While Washington floundered on the shoals of executive-legislative gridlock, this talented crew proved government can work in America.

WASHINGTON -- When presidents are faced with difficult national problems, their first course of action is often to look around for some extra chairs.Yes, chairs. Because their next course of action often is creating a Cabinet-level department to deal with the problem -- or at least look as if it's trying to -- and that means pulling up another chair to the ever expanding Cabinet table."Whenever there's a problem, people look to the president and say, 'What are you going to do?' Often, he can't do very much, but there's an expectation that the president will take action.

We're about to remodel our large family room, which also encompasses the kitchen area. The floor plan we've devised seems fine in most respects, but it has one major missing piece: kitchen cabinetry. Nothing that we've seen has been suitable to the room's transitional styling. The cabinetry also has to blend with the mellow finishes of the cherrywood furniture in the living area. The chairs, by the way, are covered with blue or natural-color fabrics. What do you think would be our best choice?

NOT SINCE Lenin's Bolsheviks overthrew the Romanov dynasty in 1917 has Russia been ruled by as young a group of eager beavers as the new Kremlin government.But youth is not the only remarkable thing about the cabinet that 35-year-old Prime Minister Sergei Kiriyenko has assembled based on President Boris N. Yeltsin's wishes.The cumbersome post-Soviet governmental structure -- with two first deputy prime ministers and seven deputy prime ministers -- has been streamlined.Will this fresh and simplified leadership group perform any better than Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin's government of more seasoned bureaucrats?

LONDON -- The Irish Republican Army struck at the heart of British government yesterday, launching a mortar attack on the prime minister's Downing Street office and residence as the Persian Gulf war Cabinet was meeting there.Windows of Downing Street offices, including the Cabinet room, were blown in by one of three mortar shells launched from about 100 yards away from the back of a white Ford van outside the Ministry of Defense in Whitehall, which runs from Trafalgar Square to Westminster and is lined with government departments.

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas nearly erased the legacy of the late Yasser Arafat from the government yesterday as he swore in a new Cabinet packed with academics and professionals given the task of rooting out corruption and overhauling his Palestinian Authority. Abbas left only a handful of Arafat's old guard in charge during the run-up to parliamentary elections and Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in July. The vote ended a bitter battle between Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and Palestinian lawmakers over Qureia's resistance to replacing most of the members of his Cabinet.

WASHINGTON -- As President Clinton begins restaffing half his Cabinet, he must take care even when choosing who will run the most obscure departments, such as Energy or Transportation.While low-profile Cabinet posts may appear to be fillable by interchangeable faceless functionaries, experience teaches that each Cabinet pick is important. Poor choices undermine presidencies. Good ones extend the president's reach throughout government and society.Clinton is expected to start announcing his Cabinet picks in early December.

Gov. Parris N. Glendening's plan to give Maryland's 530,000 veterans a state Cabinet department received a warm reception yesterday from a Senate committee led by one of their own.The administration's bill to create a Department of Veterans Affairs fulfills a promise made by the governor during last year's campaign. It would combine three commissions under a single Cabinet secretary, at a cost estimated at $84,100 next year.Sen. Clarence W. Blount, a World War II Army veteran who chairs the Economic and Environmental Affairs Committee, volunteered his strong support for the measure.

LONDON -- Reeling from his party's poor showing in local elections, British Prime Minister Tony Blair fired several senior ministers from his Cabinet yesterday in a sweeping reshuffle intended to reassert his authority and silence party members who want him to quit. But his most powerful colleague, rival and heir-apparent - Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the exchequer - distanced himself from the reshuffle, saying he had not been consulted. Brown also described the voting results as "a warning shot" that showed the Labor Party needed to be "renewed."