President Bush’s nominee to replace Norman Mineta at Transportation, Mary Peters, represents a major case of trading up. Peters knows transportation policy well, particularly of the innovative variety:

“She is very market-oriented and future-oriented,” said Robert Poole, director of transportation studies for the libertarian Reason Institute think tank in Los Angeles. “She really understands the growing obsolescence of paying for highways out of gas taxes, and she understands the importance of tolling and market pricing for the highway system of the future.”

No word yet on whether there will be any change in the policy of frisking Iowan grandmothers at the airports.