Not the kind of change we can believe in, no matter how much it excites little Joe Klein:
t has become something of a tradition for a President to claim bipartisanship by appointing stray members of the opposing party who either have a similar outlook or are tucked into the most obscure Cabinet positions; even George W. Bush hired Norman Mineta—remember him?—as Secretary of Transportation. Obama seems intent on going beyond that. "I don't want to have people who just agree with me," he said. "I want people who are continually pushing me out of my comfort zone." Obama said he'd be particularly interested in having high-ranking Republicans advising him on defense and national security. "I really admire the way the elder Bush negotiated the end of the cold war—with discipline, tough diplomacy and restraint ... and I'd be very interested in having those sorts of Republicans in my Administration, especially people who can expedite a responsible and orderly conclusion to the Iraq war—and who know how to keep the hammer down on al-Qaeda."
When I asked him specifically if he would want to retain Robert Gates as Secretary of Defense, Obama said, "I'm not going to let you pin me down ... but I'd certainly be interested in the sort of people who served in the first Bush Administration." Gates was George H.W. Bush's cia director—and he has been a superb Secretary of Defense, as good in that post as his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, was awful.
Klein is a well-documented idiot, so we can forgive him this idiocy. Or maybe not.
I have nothing against having token Republicans in the Obama administration. Or, heck, include them as part of Blue Ribbon commissions we can cheerily ignore, or in undersecretary positions where they can offer contradictory advice and thus help prevent a bubble from forming around the Obama Administration.
But the problem with putting a Republican at secretary of defense (or in the intelligence agencies) is that it reinforces the bullshit notion that only Republicans can be effective stewards of our national defense.
Whether Gates has been a good Sec of Defense is irrelevant. There are plenty of Democrats who could ably fill that cabinet seat. There is no reason to reinforce a stereotype that has been damaging not just the Democratic Party -- but the nation itself. Iraq, anyone? After the last eight years, Republicans have no basis upon which to claim supremacy on national security issues.
This is an election for change. If voters want Republicans at the Defense Department, they can vote for John McCain.