No Republican SecDef

I've seen speculation that Obama would pick Hagel as his Secretary of Defense.

This is a terrible, terrible idea.

It made sense, in the environment WJC was in to put a moderate New England Republican, Bill Cohen, (OK, I'm from Maine, and I'd met the guy a coupla times) in the position.  

But it makes no sense now. It doesn't even make sense as a run to the center campaign ploy.  There are plenty of other candidates, including HRC.

But in the post-primary part of the campaign, Obama needs to dance with them who brung him.  Hagel may have evinced doubts about the invasion and occupation, but he has been as complicit as any Republican in turning the President into the Field Marshall in Chief.

The reflexive consideration of a Republican as SecDef hands back "the  Democrats are weak on national security" narrative back, to the Republicans after we've seen 7 years of demonstrated national security failure on their part.

Obama's appointment should strike fear into the 33-33-34 tri-partite government arm of the military industrial complex.

So, no Sam Nunn. No ex-Senator from a defense contracting state.  Me, I like Jimmy Carter.  Just for two years. Let him supervise a Quadrennial Defense Review.

Nobody can bitch about his credentials. Korean war vet, who was qualified to serve on nuclear sub.

Maybe that's not such a good idea. I don't know.

But really, not a Republican. If Obama wants to convey a message of change and unity, a Republican for Health and Human Services.  Susan Collins may be looking for a job.

•  A republican for...

  Health and Human Services? I think we're all gonna die!!

  by reflectionsv37 on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:40:27 PM PDT

  •  That's the frickin' point

    If you want unity, and you're in office, and you've got both houses, then let's see you're Sam Nunn's of housing policy.

    by JayAckroyd on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:50:30 PM PDT

•  Really?

  I like Jimmy Carter.  Just for two years. Let him supervise a Quadrennial Defense Review.

  Carter would be 84 at the time he takes office.

  by MajorFlaw on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:43:59 PM PDT

  •  McCain will be 94

    in people years.

    by JayAckroyd on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:51:18 PM PDT

    •  Even worse...

      He's a Pub.  Can't imagine choosing one of them until/unless we run out of Dems.

      by MajorFlaw on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:54:24 PM PDT

    •  ROTFLMAO

      by Andrew C White on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:57:17 PM PDT

•  I like Hagel.

  it would be a good idea.  Having Obama as the "decider" is what really matters.  I trust his judgment.  

  by Hope08 on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:46:14 PM PDT

  •  I do not, but that does

    not mean that we have disagree on everything.  Warmest regards, Doc.

    by Translator on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:48:24 PM PDT

  •  Sure.

    And let Obama call him up for advice. Let Obama's SecDef include him on a non-prolif study group.

    But let's stop, right here, the idea that militarist idiots are the most effective defensive advisers

    by JayAckroyd on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:52:53 PM PDT

  •  Please please no

    It is time that being strong on defense meant more than just voting for every bloated Pentagon budget. Walking the walk is the answer. Can only republicans handle these jobs?

    by Donna Z on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:11:45 PM PDT

•  Oh, that's good for a chuckle.

  Jimmy Carter as SecDef.  I'd like to see Pauly Shore.  I can't help it, I wasted my youth watching Comedy Central on hungover Saturdays.  Jimmy Carter is the dark horse among those two, of course.

  by burrow owl on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:46:23 PM PDT

•  Your observation should be cast in steel

  if a Democrat wins the Executive office.  But all bets are off if McCain wins.  In that case, look for a cabinet to be packed with hardcore Republican partisans.  Warmest regards, Doc.

  by Translator on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:46:38 PM PDT

•  I say Kucinich for SecDef

  He'd provide a really, really new spin for the dept

  by christomento on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:47:26 PM PDT

  •  Ugh! While I like his thought on

    personal freedom, as a SECDEF I think that we could do better.  Warmest regards, Doc.

    by Translator on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:52:49 PM PDT

•  HRC as Sec Def?

  The heroine of Tuzla?
  Try again.

  by Catte Nappe on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:47:39 PM PDT

•  "How about me?"

  

  by Olds88 on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:48:47 PM PDT

  •  As I remember, he was

    the Daddy of the Edsel, but I might be wrong and do not have time to trace his tenure at Ford.  Got any further information handy?  Warmest regards, Doc.

    by Translator on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:54:53 PM PDT

    •  Don't know for sure

      I always heard it was Henry Ford II's idea-- hence the name.

      by Olds88 on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:36:17 PM PDT

•  This is a pressing concern? (nt)

  by Warren Terra on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:52:04 PM PDT

  •  Yes actually

    The entire concept of a Democrat hiring a Republican as Secretary of Defense is selling the idea that Democrats are weak on national security. It's a load of bullshit from stem to stern.

    by Andrew C White on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:59:24 PM PDT

•  Any safe Republican senator pulled

  into the cabinet is one more Senate race we are closer to 60 seats....

  by Osaka on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:58:23 PM PDT

  •  Are there any

    safe ones?  Warmest regards, Doc.

    by Translator on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:56:13 PM PDT

•  Dick Lugar

  would be acceptable to me at either state or defense.

  Obama has worked with Lugar.  Lugar is an internationalist.  Lugar has come around on the war, even if not perfect --- and the decision still ultimately lies with the President.  Lugar is known in the halls of foreign governments, and also known as a reasonable man.  He's done good work on loose nukes.... This shouldn't be counted as a reason to do it, but it is icing in that it takes a "Senator for Life" away from the GOP.

  by zonk on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 05:59:08 PM PDT

•  100% in agreement

  I'm also from Maine, and it was painful to repeatedly see retired Clinton SoD Cohen on TV supporting the bush policy and war. We've endured republicans controlling the Pentagon for 12 years. It is time to change that....now.

  The name that I will offer meets the credentials of what the country needs to meet its yearning for change. I've heard him speak on the current direction of the current QDR....he absolutely doesn't agree. He agrees with us that the idea of the "Long War" is wrong. He knows the Pentagon and its politics better than nearly anyone alive. He understands the dangers posed by a partisan military championed by religion. He knows.

  Thus I would suggest Wes Clark. Of course the congress would have to approve a waiver of the last year that he must wait. With Dem. congressional control and considering that it has been done before, I don't see that as a problem.

  I may not be pleased with Clark's endorsement of Clinton, but what weighs more on my call, is the good of the military and the nation. Besides, many of the players on Obama's foreign policy team are good friends of the General. Clark can turn the Pentagon's page. Oh, and Clark is a Democrat.

  by Donna Z on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:09:50 PM PDT

  •  Agreed, Wes Clark

    I've been pushing for that appointment for a long time, now. Unless for some reason he'd rather have the portfolio at State.  

    by Christopher Walker on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:20:30 PM PDT

    •  He'd be good at State

      but the big problem is in the Pentagon which I believe is his first choice.

      We really need him there.

      Oh, I noticed all of the posts advocating that the Dems. offer the big cabinet chairs after the only thing the republicans have ever offered a Dem. is transportation. I'm all for olive branches but cutting down the tree seems a bit much.

      12 years of republicans controlling the Pentagon and we wonder why we're branded weak on defense.

      by Donna Z on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:26:24 PM PDT

    •  We try not to appoint

      Generals to SecDef.  It's best to have people with no military experience there.

      by JayAckroyd on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 07:29:15 PM PDT

      •  The rule is 10 years out

        Marshall did just fine with a waiver.

        Current internal procedures of the labyrinth known as the Pentagon need serious revision/over sight. The normal politicians and business people who get placed there are fine in ordinary times; this is not an ordinary time. We need someone who really knows the place inside and out. We need someone who knows the exact site of every rock and what is hiding under there.

        What we are talking about is re-setting the military.

        Steve Clemons just did a piece on this mess.

        by Donna Z on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 08:03:04 PM PDT

•  I think Biden wants Sec Def

  by DWKING on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:12:13 PM PDT

  •  that's not a bad choice nt

    by JayAckroyd on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 07:29:45 PM PDT

•  I think we have had....

  ...enough of armchair warriors who don't seem to know thier ass from a Humvee.  What about McFadden or Wes Clark they are both civilians, have the ability to restore and rebuild the military and aren't the shoot first, negotiate later, type of people.  I don't know McFadden's politics.

  by carver on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:14:20 PM PDT

•  GOP cabinet propects

  I can only think of a couple of Republican Senators who might be appropriate to short-list for Cabinet positions in a Democratic Administration.

  One would be Lamar Alexander, who is a former Secretary of Education. That would open up his seat in the Senate.

  The other is Lugar, who would be a perfectly respectable Secretary of State. However, we don't really need him; there's no shortage of Democrats who would be a good Secretary of State.

  It would be a  graceful gesture to appoint former Senator Lincoln Chaffee to an Ambassadorship.

  Politically I could see offering an Executive Branch appointment to Judd Gregg. The problem is that I'm not aware that he's an expert on anything in particular.

  I wonder if Lieberman would take Homeland Security. The advantage would be that he could then be dismissed.

  I'd like to see Mikulski offered a Cabinet post. Because then we could get a better Senator from her state.

  by Christopher Walker on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:16:31 PM PDT

•  Well

  There are plenty of other candidates, including HRC.

  She has been in combat...dodging snipers is no easy feat.

  by BraveheartDC on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 06:57:43 PM PDT

•  Fuck a Bunch of Republicans

  The ONLY thing that could keep me from voting for the Democratic Nominee is the announcement that they will be sucking up to the people who have enabled Bush on issue after issue for seven long years.

  Fuck 'em all but eight; leave six for pallbearers and two to beat the drums.

  by The Baculum King on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 07:05:00 PM PDT

•  Must say

  This is the one thing I've heard from Obama that actually worries me. Hagel is a dominionist freak he's also a former executive for ES&S which is one of the black box voting machine vendors that handed Bush his second term (and probably his first)

  Someone needs to wake the Obama campaign up on this matter.

  by Skex on Thu Mar 27, 2008 at 08:07:51 PM PDT

  •  What on earth is

    a "dominionist freak"??!?!?

    by mangusta on Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 06:00:27 AM PDT

    •  A group wishing to

      Undermine our constitution and replace it with biblical law. Essentially the Christian equivalent of Al Qeda except they have access to the reigns of power.

      Domininism

      I really don't trust Hagel and I don't like him and just because he finally came around on the war does not erase the other problems I have with him.

      by Skex on Fri Mar 28, 2008 at 07:49:34 AM PDT

      •  Thanks for the explanation

        well, I do like Hagel, and I am sure that replacing the constitution with biblical law comes pretty low on his list of priorities. I am not particularly fond of his fiscal conservatism, but a religious nut he most certainly is not.

        by mangusta on Sat Mar 29, 2008 at 04:47:11 AM PDT