Any new DHS chief is obviously just going to do what White House tells him: http://t.co/sxVedQc4Sj But where`s the name "Jeh" come from?

— Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) October 18, 2013

The answer to Mark Krikorian`s question is, surprisingly, Liberia. Jeh Johnson is not a Liberian-American or an Americo-Liberian, he`s a member of the old school "mulatto elite".

He`s a graduate of Morehouse College, and, according via Wikipedia) "Johnson’s first name (pronounced “Jay”) is taken from a Liberian chief, who reportedly saved his grandfather’s life while Dr. Johnson was on a League of Nations mission to Liberia in 1930."

The Washington Post notes, in Eight facts you didn’t know about Jeh Johnson, [By Emily Heil, October 18, 2013] that

• His uncle, 2d Lt Robert B. Johnson, was one of the famed Tuskegee airmen.
• His grandfather, Charles S. Johnson, a prominent sociologist and participant in the Harlem Renaissance, was the president of Fisk University.

I mention all this, and the possibly distressing word "mulatto" because it`s not immediately obvious from photographs that Johnson is black. In fact,and  this is the point, he`s not black, he`s African-American:  more American than Obama, because he has Harlem Renaissance connections and is descended from slaves, but less African.

Still, it`s clear that Obama didn`t look for the best man for the job, but the best minority for the job. And as Mark Krikorian notes above, it doesn`t matter, because whoever is in that job, Obama will tell him not to do it.