From the 4 p.m. ET hour of MSNBC Live on December 16:
HALL: And President-elect Barack Obama talked about that team of rivals from all different backgrounds. Well, does Obama need to pick any card-carrying Republicans for his administration?
[...]
HALL: Well, let me ask you about some of the other news today. President-elect Barack Obama took a lot of questions about the [Gov. Rod] Blagojevich [D-IL] mess, but he also took some questions about not having Republicans as nominees so far for his Cabinet. Here's what he had to say to a reporter who asked him about it.
OBAMA [video clip]: I'm not giving you a preview. We've got some more appointments to make, and I think that when you look at our entire White House staff and Cabinet and our various appointments, I think people will feel that we followed through on our commitment to make sure that this is not only a administration that is diverse ethnically, but it's also diverse politically and it's diverse in terms of people's life experience.
HALL: So, Jonathan, he made a commitment, but how does he make sure it doesn't come off as if he's looking for a couple of token Republicans?
ALLEN: I think it's getting harder and harder to do that because so many of the high-profile Cabinet picks have been made. I mean, he's down to the labor secretary and the transportation secretary, the U.S. trade representative. Obviously, he's got Robert Gates as defense secretary, and that's something that I think his people will point to when --
HALL: But he's not a registered Republican.
ALLEN: -- this process is over.
HALL: Gates is not a registered Republican.
ALLEN: Right. One of the things that President-elect Obama did not say is that he would have a diversity of partisanship. He said diversity -- diversity politically. And they certainly have a team of rivals. I mean, one secretary has called the other, or at least someone in her camp, called the other “Judas.” And, I mean, there's a political diversity there --
HALL: Right.
ALLEN: -- but not necessarily partisan diversity. We'll see. He's got a few more picks to make, and he may make some appointments to White House jobs that don't currently exist.