The Rude Pundit: Obama's Cabinet Choices Are Shut the Fuck Up

[meegbear]

Here's a few quotes from the end of 2000 and the beginning of 2001 regarding the choice of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense by the newly-appointed President-elect George W. Bush:

"He is an enormously impressive guy, and I think Governor Bush is very lucky to get him to be Defense secretary again." - Fred Barnes on Fox "news," December 31, 2000

"I think it's a very good pick; and I think I'd rather see him than some businessman come in who you'd have to show the way to the restrooms in the Pentagon." - Bob Novak on CNN, December 28, 2000

Rumsfeld is a conservative "on SDI, but very much a moderate on other issues, I think. Rumsfeld is no right winger." - Chris Matthews on MSNBC's Hardball, January 3, 2001

"I think it's an excellent choice. I think Don Rumsfeld is a very talented and successful individual and I think it says that President-elect Bush is willing to have strong-willed, able people around him." - James Woolsey on PBS's The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, December 28, 2000

This list could go on with the rogues' gallery of fucktardery:
Ken Adelman in the Washington Times, December 29, 2000: Rummy "is a wonderful strategic thinker and a very determined individual with great managerial skills but who also knows and cares about key national-security issues."

Henry Kissinger, Wash Times, December 30, 2000: "I don't know anybody who has a similar range of experience - White House chief of staff, NATO ambassador, secretary of defense, chairman of the ballistic-missile threat commission, CEO of major American corporations. To find someone with these qualifications who also favors missile defense and knows strategic issues - it's almost impossible. It's the best choice (Mr. Bush) could have made."

Etcetera. You'll find people talking about how immensely qualified Rumsfeld was, how moderate he was, how experienced he was. And, umm, how did that work out?

There's a few points one could make here: about the fallacy of the long resume', about the stupidity of overanalyzing cabinet picks, about how you shall only know a person by his or her actions.

But let's just say this as Barack Obama introduces his national security team and people huff and puff about whether they're hawks or not progressive enough or problem children or disappointing or what the fuck ever: Ultimately, the cabinet does the bidding of the president. Sure, they offer ideas and guide the departments. But they are policy implementers. Nothing less and nothing more. And it's all a political game. If we know anything at all about Barack Obama, it's that he's one crafty motherfucker in the realm of politics.

If you wanted to, say, change the course of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our strategic relationships around the globe, who's gonna do it without pissing people off? Secretary of Defense Dennis Kucinich? Fuck no. You get the guys and gals who were proponents of the war in at least some way or have cozy goddamn Capitol Hill relationships. If the great and glorious David Petraeus and the shiny Robert Gates are saying, "Bring the troops home," then you've defused your enemies. It ain't Clintonian triangulation, which involved embracing a watered-down version of your opponents' beliefs. It's just fuckin' smart. The same goes for economic policy and it will go for domestic.

Yeah, if Obama lets his hawks run the place and make him break his promises, then we can squawk. But for now, can we just take a breath and see how it all works out?

http://rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[Phredicles]

1. "can we just take a breath and see how it all works out?"

Thanks - my thoughts, too.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

2. Rudey could have gone...

Completely off his hinges on these picks and no one would have batted an eye. Instead, he stayed his hand and recommended some cleansing breaths and some patience.

I'm down with that. There is plenty out there to go all spare about. I see no reason to make shit up.

[anonymous171]

3. Yep. I'm willing to wait until 2012 to pass judgment.

If Obama governs like Clinton II, then I will bitch and moan just like the rest of DU. For now, I'm just chilling out and enjoying the view.

[northernlights]

12. you don't want peace or prosperity?

Clinton did some awful stuff, but 8 years of peace and prosperity was really nice change, imho.

[bigtree]

4. I think that Rumsfeld ran amok at the Pentagon

It matters who these people are. I don't know what the sense is in waiting to point out where and how they've operated in the past in relation to their future posts.

And, in the past, the critics that Obama and RP may want to mollify haven't shown any consideration to that gesture at all as they throw their former supporters under their bus quite regularly in pursuit of their political aims. These folks chosen by Obama are already dead to them, despite their initial blather about their suitability and qualifications.

Better to put forward folks who share your values and beliefs and work to convince of their view or position through their actions.

And, I'm tired of hearing how 'competent' these centrists and moderates are, as if progressive candidates for these positions are somehow on the fringe or too extreme to be reasonable or responsible.

[cali]

11. I've seen no evidence that Rumsfeld ran rogue in the Pentagon

and I've seen no indication that Obama plans to abdicate his responsibility over his cabinet.

[bigtree]

13. just sayin' it doesn't make it so

Rumsfeld's personal spy ring - Salon.com

The defense secretary couldn't count on the CIA or the State Department to provide a pretext for war in Iraq. So he created a new agency that would tell him what he wanted to hear.
http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2003/07/16/intelligence/


Selective Intelligence
Donald Rumsfeld has his own special sources.
by Seymour M. Hersh - May 12, 2003

They call themselves, self-mockingly, the Cabal—a small cluster of policy advisers and analysts now based in the Pentagon’s Office of Special Plans. In the past year, according to former and present Bush Administration officials, their operation, which was conceived by Paul Wolfowitz, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, has brought about a crucial change of direction in the American intelligence community. These advisers and analysts, who began their work in the days after September 11, 2001, have produced a skein of intelligence reviews that have helped to shape public opinion and American policy toward Iraq. They relied on data gathered by other intelligence agencies and also on information provided by the Iraqi National Congress, or I.N.C., the exile group headed by Ahmad Chalabi. By last fall, the operation rivalled both the C.I.A. and the Pentagon’s own Defense Intelligence Agency, the D.I.A., as President Bush’s main source of intelligence regarding Iraq’s possible possession of weapons of mass destruction and connection with Al Qaeda. As of last week, no such weapons had been found. And although many people, within the Administration and outside it, profess confidence that something will turn up, the integrity of much of that intelligence is now in question.
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/05/12/030512fa_fact

[EFerrari]

16. He did run amok in the areas that Cheney didn't really care about.

And he did it because he and Cheney were in a power struggle with both Bush and CIA (that would be, two power struggles).

[NJmaverick]

5. A logical fallacy

If A is praised and turns out bad, all other letters that are praised must turn out bad.

It's like buying a tire for your car and getting a flat. You fear buying another tire, because new tires always go flat.

[aquart]

7. The fallacy is the myth that Clinton is a war hawk.

She's a Clinton. They're talk hawks.

[Bucky]

8. :- )

Thanks. Bill Clinton's handling of Kosovo showed just the right balance of bluster and consequences. He handled the reinstallation of Aristide in Haiti with the same finesse, altho in the long run the reinstallation didn't quite take.

[struggle4progress]

20. Aristide was run out of the country by militarists during the reign of Bush I

Clinton's reinstallation was simply the restoration to Haiti of its first elected President

And then (amazingly) under Bush II, a new wave of militarists appeared -- and the US forced Aristide onto a plane in the wee hours of the morning and flew him off to ... the Central African Republic, ruled by a government freshly installed by a coup, a country to which Aristide had not asked to be taken, in fact, he said he had been kidnapped

In evaluating this surprising coincidence, namely that the first elected President of Haiti was deposed militarily midterm during the reign of one Bush and then (after being restored) deposed militarily again during the reign of the next Bush, it may be relevant to recall an odd fact, which one can verify from old newspapers: Republican rightwingers were expressing their hated of Aristide long before he was elected President, even, in fact, during the period when he was still a priest working with Haiti's poor

[NJmaverick]

14. That would be another one

[Truth Teller]

6. He should keep on the entire Bush cabinet

After all, they just implement his policies. Continuity. Making nice with Republicans.

It only makes sense.

[Fumesucker]

9. The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior..

Anyone expecting leopards to change their spots is cruising for a crashing disillusionment.

[rucky]

10. Fair enough.

It is frustrating, though, that progressives get sidelined no matter what.

[Deep13]

15. O's choices show remarkable political maturity and vision...

...something I did not expect from someone with his limited Federal experience.

[DS1]

17. It's MY Internet and I'll huff and puff up and down its hallways as much as I please!

:D

[EFerrari]

18. I don't get these calls to shut the fuck up, especially from people who make their living

"talking", and it's not just TRP. Aren't American voters passive enough?

/oops

[leftofthedial]

19. yeah. choices don't matter, so shut the fuck up!

don't agree with me? then shut the fuck up!

they're all just glorified go-fers, so shut the fuck up!

...shut the fuck up!

[peacetalksforall]

21. If a person trusts as much as we have in the past 22-45 years, you

learn to pay attention to who is who. If Obama is in charge, I say he has performed a miracle to get some of these people on a new path and adopting a new philosophy. He did it in short time. He must be a very persuasive fella.

I think some of us deserve to not trust.

The only thing I trust is this: Obama brought joy to people when he was elected. Obama brought people out to vote for him. I trust that he will not betray these people.

I became hardened, especially in the last eight years. I was programmed by lies. But I will believe and trust in my above statement. I repeat, I trust that he will not betray these people.

[AmyCamus]

22. Nonsense. Obama missed his opportunity to use his mandate.

Clinton, Gates, et al are not "change."