A wise guy in the press corps called President Dwight Eisenhower's first cabinet in 1953 "nine millionaires and a plumber."

The millionaires included John Foster Dulles at State and Charles E. "Engine Charlie" Wilson at Defense. The plumber was Martin P. Durkin, at Labor; he was president of the plumber's and pipefitter's union. He lasted eight months.

President-elect Trump's first Cabinet will be bigger and more cumbersome than Ike's — 15 around that big White House table, from State to Homeland Security.

Members of Eisenhower's Cabinet were men — and one woman — of achievement. Consider just a few of them.

• Charles E. Wilson, Secretary of Defense, was president of General Motors, leading its churning assembly lines throughout World War II. It was no accident he was called "Engine Charlie."

• George M. Humphrey. Secretary of the Treasury, was president of a steel company. "When George speaks," Ike said, "we all listen."

• John Foster Dulles, Secretary of State, knew his way around the nation's capital. Both his grandfather (Foster) and his uncle (Robert Lansing) had served as secretary of state. His younger brother, Allen, ran the CIA.

• Oveta Culp Hobby, Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare (later Health and Human Services) ran the Women's Army Corps as a full bird colonel in World War II. Her husband, William H. Hobby, had been governor of Texas. She was the first secretary of HEW.

The Democrats could make fun of them all they wished, but they knew that the members of Ike's cabinet (with the possible exception of Martin Durkin) hadn't taken the job to build a reputation of make money. Those were good years for Republicans, perhaps the party's apex. We are now entering its nadir.

Mr. Trump still has a long way to go to fill all those cabinet seats. But just consider a few he's already chosen or those he seems to be thinking about.

• Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama, who was rejected by a GOP-led committee in 1986 for a Federal judgeship for his seemingly racist views. Now he thinks he could run the Justice Department.

• Stephen K. Bannon, chief of staff, who left a web site that infamously believed fact was often fiction, and that fiction sometimes was fact, ran the Trump campaign in its final tempestuous weeks. He will now run the White House.

• The Over-the-Hill Gang — Newt Gingrich, who shut down the House for 27 days in 1995 and 1996 when he was speaker; Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York, who rallied New York after 9/11 but has been going downhill ever since; and Governor Chris Christie, of New Jersey, probably undone by a bridge scandal.

Ike's "nine millionaires and a plumber" will be looking better and better every day.

James M. Perry, a prominent veteran political reporter, contributes regular observations to post-gazette.com. Mr. Perry was the chief political correspondent of The Wall Street Journal until his retirement. Prior to that, he covered national politics for the Dow Jones weekly, The National Observer. He can be reached at erieperry@aol.com.

First Published: November 18, 2016, 8:22 p.m.