Perry named to run dept. whose name he couldn't remember

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 Trump names Rick Perry as Secretary of Energy

Ex-governor advocated elimination of the department but couldn’t remember its name

In a surprise announcement, President-elect Donald Trump named former Texas governor Rick Perry to become Secretary of Energy.

In the press release announcing the appointment, Mr. Trump said, “Rick Perry is a major, major talent who could do any job in the Trump administration, let me tell you. If I hadn't won the election in a landslide, I would definitely had Rick participate in the next season of Celebrity Apprentice. In looking for the right position for Rick, we also considered Commerce and Education, departments Rick had vowed to eliminate if he ever became president. While he also wanted to eliminate the Energy Department, the fact that he couldn’t remember its name was, for me, what clinched it for him. I mean, sometimes I can’t remember its name. And I’m smart, you know.”

Perry, who ran for the Republican presidential nomination in 2012, famously said in a debate during the primaries, “"It's three agencies of government when I get there that are gone: Commerce, Education and -- the, uh -- what's the third one there? Let's see,” going on to say, “"I would do away with Education. The, uh, Commerce. And let's see. I can't. The third one, I can't. "Oops."

Perry was selected for a Cabinet position by Trump despite having said, while campaigning for the 2016 Republican nomination, that Mr. Trump was a “barking carnival act” and a “cancer on conservatism.”

Through a spokesman, Perry thanked Mr. Trump for his confidence vowing to recommend on his first day on the job that the President “change the name of his department from the Department of Energy to the Department of Oops.”