Shocking developments in Iran:
Reporting from Washington — Little more than a year after U.S. spy agencies concluded that Iran had halted work on a nuclear weapon, the Obama administration has made it clear that it believes there is no question that Tehran is seeking the bomb.
In his news conference this week, President Obama went so far as to describe Iran’s “development of a nuclear weapon” before correcting himself to refer to its “pursuit” of weapons capability.
Mad mullahs making massive missiles? You don’t say. Cross-posting at Richard Fernandez’s place, Tigerhawk concludes:
Procedurally, this episode is going to reinforce the view of conservatives that after Iraq, at least, the intelligence agencies undermined the Bush administration at each opportunity. If there was “politicization” of intelligence during the Bush years, it cut against Bush policies more than it facilitated them.
Snarkily, we are waiting for all those lefty blogs to deliberate thoughtfully about whether the December 2007 report, which the Bushies nefariously “suppressed” for a year after its development, might have itself been the “intelligence failure.” Perhaps it is important for a president to question the judgments of the bureaucracy.
President Obama — to his credit? — seems to be trying to do something like that. He’s got enough Czars and Special Envoys and Chiefs of This and That to effectively neutralize his own cabinet. As Dick Morris noted earlier this week:
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is finding that her job description is dissolving under her feet, leaving her with only a vestige of the power she must have thought she acquired when she signed on to be President Obama’s chief Cabinet officer.
I always wondered why Clinton took the job — the office of SecState tends to take dry, tired men and spit them back out drier and more tired. And can you name a single modern SecState who went on to bigger things after leaving office? Anyway, I’ve gotten off the point here, which is this: Obama is putting together Cabinet-Within-(or is it “Above?”)-the Cabinet, answerable to no one but himself.
The question of course is, “how will the Emperor maintain control without the bureaucracy?”
I dunno. I’m not sure this has ever been tried before on this scale in the White House. It could either lead to a streamlined and effective Administration, or make Reagan’s bickering, leaking cabinet look like the very model of efficiency and loyalty. We’ll see.
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14 Comments
1. Jack:“And can you name a single SecState who went on to bigger things after leaving office?”
Sure: Martin Van Buren, James Madison, James Buchanan, John Quincy Adams, James Monroe
Now recently SecState has not lead to bigger things, but it used too.
Obama’s building of a “shadow Cabinet” could be his way of bypassing… his own Cabinet. It could also be how he appeases his various clingers and staff.
The guy does seem to be flying by the seat of his pants and changing things for the visual aesthetics of it.
Feb 13, 2009 - 10:46 am 2. Stephen Green:Jack –
Thanks for the correction. I dropped the word “modern” in the main entry. I’ll get that fixed right now.
Feb 13, 2009 - 10:49 am 3. jaymaster:Actually, it was Tigerhawk guest posting over there, uhm, Will.
Feb 13, 2009 - 11:03 am 4. Stephen Green:Thanks for the heads-up, Jay. I totally missed that. See what I get for trying to blog, write up PJTV’s Blog Week in Review, and find juicy stuff in the Pork Package all at once?
Feb 13, 2009 - 11:07 am 5. jaymaster:Just doing my part in the Army of Editors.
Feb 13, 2009 - 11:26 am 6. BrotherJ:“I always wondered why Clinton took the job ”
Well, Secretary of State is fourth in the line of succession if
Feb 13, 2009 - 5:26 pm 7. MG:Arkancideanything should happen to O, Joe and Nan.What about Senator Pro Tempore? Isn’t THAT fourth in line? Then cabinet officers, in order of formation of the deparment (State, War/Defense, Treasury…)
Feb 14, 2009 - 1:08 am 8. cboo:“I always wondered why Clinton took the job” – my sister has a theory that this was part of the deal made at DiFi’s house when Hillary’s presidential hopes had faded. It goes like this, and bear in mind the facts that 1) Hillary still wants to be Prez, and 2) Biden in no way will be able to pull it off if in 2016 if he’s kept on for the 2012 election:
Hillary gets SecState, and hangs in quietly for four years. Biden is conveniently dropped from the ticket in 2012 and Hillary comes on as veep. IF Obama is reelected, Hillary doesn’t have to lift a finger to get the nomination – it’s all hers, no questions asked.
Feb 14, 2009 - 8:46 am 9. Brother J:You’re right MG. Veep, Speaker, President pro tempore, Secretary of State. She’ll have one more to bump off…….
Feb 14, 2009 - 8:59 am 10. rosignol:I always wondered why Clinton took the job….
Easy- she isn’t nearly as smart as she thinks she is.
Feb 14, 2009 - 10:33 am 11. Blaine:It seems to be a slow steady march to a Byzantine style of government. The Senate will demand that the “Czars and Special Envoys and Chiefs of This and That ” will have to be approved, and then the president will appoint OverCzars … everyone will be chasing a tail.
Feb 14, 2009 - 2:47 pm 12. smoothjim:“And can you name a single modern SecState who went on to bigger things after leaving office?”
Feb 15, 2009 - 10:56 am 13. eaglewingz08:Mostly true, at least until Condoleeza Rice becomes NFL Commisioner.
It’s also reported that the US will lift sanctions against Syria and Iran, as a good faith confidence building measure (not sure whether this will be before or after face to faces with the mullahcracy).
It’s also being reported today that the USA will not boycott Durban II but in fact will fully participate with the raving anti semites there (if you’re Jewish FOR SHAME, for voting for this Administration; in fact if you are concerned about human rights and America FOR SHAME!):
“The Obama administration said late Saturday it would participate in planning for a UN conference on racism dubbed ‘Durban 2’ despite concerns the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others to demonize Israel.
The State Department said it would send diplomats next week to participate in preparatory meetings for the World Conference Against Racism, which is set to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in April and which some countries including Israel have already decided to boycott. In a statement released late Saturday, the State Department said the US delegation to the planning discussions would review “current direction of conference preparations and whether US participation in the conference itself is warranted.”
“This will be the first opportunity the (Obama) administration has had to engage in the negotiations for the Durban Review, and – in line with our commitment to diplomacy – the US has decided to send a delegation to engage in the negotiations on the text of the conference document,” the department said. “The intent of our participation is to work to try to change the direction in which the review conference is heading,” it said. “We hope to work with other countries that want the Conference to responsibly and productively address racism around the world.”
Feb 15, 2009 - 2:30 pm 14. Grants:The Obama administration said late Saturday it would participate in planning for a UN conference on racism dubbed ‘Durban 2’ despite concerns the meeting will be used by Arab nations and others to demonize Israel.
Feb 17, 2009 - 11:15 amSorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.