With cabinet speculation as an in thing now that Obama has been elected, I’d like to give my two cents in favor of a Secretary of Defense who will likely receive no support from this community despite her experience and positions.
She has served on the Armed Services Committee in the House for a decade, currently holding the position of Chairwomen of the Subcommittee on Special Forces and the Subcommittee on Future Security and Defense Capabilities, has seats on the Subcommittee on Air and Land Forces and the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, and a position on the Task Force on Nonproliferation she's used to be one of the strongest voices in Congress on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons. She is
regularly a member of the American delegation to the annual Wehrkunde Conference on security policy in Munich. She has addressed the Fletcher Conference on National Security, the Army Two-Star Conference for Commanders and has been a participant in the Army War College’s Strategic Crisis Exercise.
She has introduced and supported numerous resolutions in favor of redeploying our troops out of Iraq. Finally, Republicans like her.
What then could stand between her and the support of this community? Her name...
Ellen Tauscher.
You don't have to remind me that Ellen Tauscher is not the closest friend of the Netroots community. You might even recall the first diary I ever wrote Tauscher's Take on People Powered Politics. Needless to say, I'm not a fan of her economic principles and definitely not supportive of the way she views the political process and, despite living in her district during both the 2006 and 2008 primaries and elections, I have yet to cast a vote for her (I tend to write in Janet Thomas who was my Environmental Science teacher and is a strong environmental and peace activist). That said, her economic principles and view on the political process will not affect her ability to be a great Secretary of Defense.
As noted above, Tauscher clearly has the experience and expertise necessary for the role of Secretary of Defense. Before anyone brings up her lack of service in the military, it should be noted that, of the last six Secretaries of Defense, three of them (Dick Cheney, William Perry, and William Cohen) did not serve either. Similar to these Secretaries of Defense, she has served in a high level capacity on the governmental side of defense.
Another criticism that is sure to be levied against Tauscher is her initial vote for the Authorization of Military Force Against Iraq. Before using this vote to damn her, read some of her statements from an interview with Gwen Ifill right before the vote:
Well, I worked hard with many other people to get a better resolution - not a resolution that was an act of war but a resolution that gave the president the ability to use force if we were unable - with the world community - to disarm Saddam Hussein. I don't think anybody belongs to the Saddam Hussein defenders club, but I do think that we needed to have Congress and the U.N. and a geographically scoped resolution that was specific only to Iraq in order to gain a bipartisan group of people to support this in the Congress.
And I am happy to say that have we moved this resolution very far away from where he where it was originally, which was almost a blank check and where we effectively gave the president a rubber stamp -- where Congress has really inserted itself - and I think that's in the best interest of the American people.
[...]
we include I think very, very strong language where we have made sure that the president and everyone understands that this is a use of force resolution that can only be used when the president declares that diplomacy has completely failed. That includes working through the U.N., that includes perhaps inspections - perhaps coercive inspections in the short term. I think we're all interested in tighter U.N. resolutions regarding resolutions with real-time penalties and with real penalty for non-compliance. And we want those inspections to move forward. I think everyone agrees on those things.
Clearly, her mistake was not supporting the war but rather trusting George W. Bush, something we will not have to worry about with President Barack Obama. Since that vote, she has been a strong advocate for redeployment and ending the war as soon as possible.
Before anyone suggests it, I'd like to say why I believe appointing Hagel, Lugar, or reappointing Gates would be a terrible idea (less so for Gates). There are plenty of Democrats who would do just as well as any of those three (Tauscher for one) and therefore the only perceived benefit would be a sign of bipartisanship. I'm all for bipartisanship and definitely think Obama's cabinet needs to include quite a few Republicans but the perception remains that Republicans are better than Democrats in issues of defense. If we chose a Republican Secretary of Defense, it will simply push that believe further. Additionally, anything that goes right in Iraq or Afghanistan will then be credited to the Republican Secretary of Defense.
Tauscher obviously has the qualifications for the job and would prove to be a strong Secretary of Defense on issues of nuclear nonproliferation and redeploying our troops out of Iraq. I urge you all to look beyond her name and bad economic policies to consider a strong, foreign policy progressive, glass ceiling shattering, Secretary of Defense.