President Bush may have spent his undergraduate years at Yale, but his recent picks for top government positions bleed Crimson.

In the last week, Bush appointed three Harvard alums to chief posts in his second-term administration.

Yesterday, he nominated Michael Chertoff ’75—also a graduate of Harvard Law School (HLS)—to replace Tom Ridge ’67 as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). On Friday, Bush tapped Robert B. Zoellick—a graduate of HLS and Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government (KSG)—to serve as deputy secretary of state. And on Monday, Bush appointed Harvard Business School (HBS) and HLS graduate Allan B. Hubbard to act as a top economic policy adviser and director of the White House’s National Economic Council.

Bush turned to Chertoff, a judge who sits on the Third Circuit of the United States Court of Appeals, to head the DHS after his first choice for the position—Bernard B. Kerik—withdrew his name last month.

Chertoff, a 1978 HLS graduate, was at Harvard as recently as last November, when he sat on a panel at the Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. One of the panel’s criticisms involved the United States’ role in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

But despite the panel’s criticism of U.S. actions, “there’s no question [Chertoff] is conservative,” said Executive Director of the Belfer Center Juliette N. Kayyem ’91, noting Chertoff’s prominent role in crafting the controversial USA Patriot Act.

Ames Professor of Law Philip B. Heymann—who invited Chertoff to serve on the Belfer Center panel—said Bush made a “superb pick” and called Chertoff an “extremely smart, very analytical, clear-eyed and tough-minded” person.

Both Kayyem and Heymann noted the “overwhelming” management challenge Chertoff will face at the DHS. “You stand in the position of taking responsibility when and if there is another terrorist attack,” Heymann said.

Bush called Chertoff a “practical organizer, a skilled manager and a brilliant thinker” at a press conference yesterday.

But Kayyem said she was surprised with Bush’s choice, noting Chertoff’s minimal government managing experience.

From 2001 to 2003, Chertoff was head of the Justice Department’s criminal division and had a major role in shaping the U.S. legal reaction to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He also had a prominent role in the Clinton Whitewater investigation, serving as counsel to Senate Republicans during that inquiry.

No date has been set for Chertoff’s confirmation, but if history is any indication, the process should be relatively quick. Chertoff has been confirmed by the Senate three times for positions within the government, most recently by a margin of 88 to one.

SECOND AT STATE

Bush tapped Zoellick for the State Department’s number-two position at the recommendation of Secretary of State-Designee Condoleezza Rice.