The stomach of my friend Chris Hayes is churning:

Not a single, solitary, actual dyed-in-the-wool progressive has, as far as I can tell, even been mentioned for a position in the new administration. Not one.

Having done this piece on the Clinton secretaryship, I think Chris both has a point and that he might be a little premature. Bear with me.

Chris is right that the cabinet secretaries thus far don't have outright and self-identified progressives among them. Many people know this better than I do, but it seems as if Daschle is the most-left and being given the portfolio that he's most-left on. But Holder at Justice, Clinton at State, Geithner at Treasury, etc -- they're not anti-progressives, but they're also clearly not the left-wing dream-team.

The question then becomes what that in turn means. I contended in the Clinton piece -- and I'll elaborate in a piece I'm writing hopefully for tomorrow -- that you need to look at who staffs the middle tiers of government. Particularly in the foreign policy and national security spheres, which is what I feel confident to discuss, those jobs have an outsized importance. Want to see how much counterinsurgency will feature in an Obama administration? Don't look to Secretary Clinton or Secretary Gates. Look to who becomes deputy assistant secretary of defense for special operations, low-intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities. I'm totally serious.

Furthermore, has anyone noticed that the White House is looking more like the repository for progressives? Melody Barnes from CAP is going to be domestic policy director. Patrick Gaspard from SEIU is going to be political director. Ellen Moran from Emily's List is going to be communications director. And with Jim Steinberg's potential move to the State Dept. and Jim Jones' potential arrival as national security adviser, it wouldn't surprise me if Susan Rice became Jones' deputy at NSC. At least from the perspective of foreign policy, if that happens, you can probably count on the NSC portfolios going to progressives, especially if progressives find themselves frozen out of State. Oh, and Daschle's going to be in the White House too.

Obviously personnel is an imperfect guide to policy. The best guide to policy is policy. But if we're to look at the emerging administration from a progressive perspective, it's not a bad idea to look deep into the administration, and to look at who's getting the big portfolios at the White House.

And yes, thank God there's a band called Future Of The Left to justify this headline.