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Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Obama has free hand at Defense
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
“Arms control advocates and anti-war activists are ratcheting up pressure on President-elect Barack Obama to dump Defense Secretary Robert Gates and replace him with a more strident anti-war voice.
Nominating Gates to stay, “would be a violation of the mandate for change that Obama says he represents,” said Medea Benjamin, cofounder of the anti-war group CodePink.
A better bipartisan fit for Obama, they say, is Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who brings out what they like about Gates - his ability to deal with Russia, Iran and Syria - without the direct link to Bush’s policies.”
Hagel would make a fine Defense secretary. But so would Gates. Obama doesn’t need to placate the anti-war folks with this pick; he’s the president, he’ll set the policy, and the secretary will carry it out. He should take the best person in his judgment for what will be one of the most crucial jobs in his administration, and anybody who doesn’t like it can find a way to deal with it.
Gates does have a lot of respect among the Pentagon brass, not least because he replaced the reviled Donald Rumsfeld and brought rationality back to the place. That credibility could be useful for Obama as he makes tough decisions about Iraq and Afghanistan. But anybody who suggests Obama owes them?
Uh uh, not on something this important.
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Secret Service nicknames Obama
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
According to the Chicago Tribune, the Secret Service has adopted the code name “Renegade” for President-elect Barack Obama.
That no doubt disappoints Paul Broun, who was pushing for “Adolph.”
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U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Crazy
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A Georgia congressman, Paul Broun of Athens, has accused Barack Obama of being a Marxist with secret plans to take over the country, abolish all rights and rule as dictator just as Hitler did.
That’s a U.S. congressman, yes. From Georgia.
Broun might as well have claimed that he had been abducted by aliens and appointed queen of their planet Bogusia. It’s a claim with just as much basis in fact as what he actually said, and it probably wouldn’t have done more damage to what remained of Broun’s credibility.
I don’t doubt for a moment that Broun feels threatened by the prospect of Obama in the White House. But he can’t admit the real reasons for that feeling, probably even to himself, so he resorts to fantasy as a way to express it.
Sane people all over the country are snickering at Broun, as they should be. He is the point at which the lunatic fringe and Republican officeholders intersect.
Here’s his direct quote:
“It may sound a bit crazy and off base, but the thing is, he’s the one who proposed this national security force. I’m just trying to bring attention to the fact that we may — may not, I hope not — but we may have a problem with that type of philosophy of radical socialism or Marxism. That’s exactly what Hitler did in Nazi Germany and it’s exactly what the Soviet Union did. When he’s proposing to have a national security force that’s answering to him, that is as strong as the U.S. military, he’s showing me signs of being Marxist.”
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Happy Veterans Day, everyone..
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
…. especially to Amvet and the Corporal and anyone lurking here who served their country. And of course, a special shoutout to my mom and dad, both of whom wore their country’s uniform proudly, Dad for 28 years. (Back then, women had to leave the service if they got married. But military spouses deserve our thoughts too, especially in those times when the active-duty parent gets called away, as many are today).
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