Perhaps President Obama — and, for that matter, future presidents — should take a lesson from the way we handle the Department of Defense, and apply it to the Department of Justice: Consider naming someone outside his own party as attorney general...
Having a Defense secretary from the other party makes war bipartisan, and reassures members of the opposition that the powers of the sword aren't being abused.Defense -- you mean Chuck Hagel? I remember that confirmation fight -- here are some typically bipartisan Instapundit posts by Glenn Reynolds from that time:
CHUCK HAGEL: “Let the Jews Pay For It.” Related: Obama Expected To Pick Hagel.
WHY IS CHUCK HAGEL STILL IN THE MIX? [quote from Jennifer Rubin screed about Hagel's unacceptable positions, including "poisonous animosity toward the Jewish state."] Personnel is policy. If Obama appoints Hagel, you’ll know what his policy is, regardless of what he says.
CHUCK HAGEL: It was a war for oil! [quote from Billy Kristol screed about how Hagel's "far left" and "vulgar and disgusting charge" proves he's a peacenik nogoodnik; "Is President Obama really going to nominate this man as secretary of defense?"] Well, really, isn’t Hagel a perfect fit?
SO HOW’D THAT HAGEL HEARING GO? “It is very clear from the testimony that Sen. Hagel will not be bringing the potato salad to the next Mensa picnic.” And that’s from a Democrat...
DAMAGED GOODS: Hagel's Brand Suffers from Confirmation Battle. I think the original plan was to nominate a Republican who could take the blame for defense cuts — and actions. I don’t think Hagel can fill that role usefully now, even if he’s confirmed.Etc. After Hagel got in, Reynolds did posts on him like "JAMES TARANTO ON MILITARY JUSTICE: Hagel’s Science of Logic: The Secretary compounds Obama’s unlawful command influence," and "WITH THINGS FALLING APART ALL AROUND THE WORLD, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel Is Talking About the NFL. UPDATE: From the comments: 'And even there, he’s punching above his weight.'" That last one, by the way, was from nine days ago.
So yeah, reach out, Obama. The Perfesser's got your back.
Their occasional swinging of the bipartisanship incense pot probably doesn't convince much of anyone anymore, but it's always good to be reminded that our cynicism is amply justified by their mendacity.
Speaking of bullshit, guess who agrees with Reynolds, and in the sort of convoluted language that shows he's hoping no one holds him to it:
I'm not sure I want war to be bipartisan but the idea of a Republican AG would really restart any number of conversations that have stalled out or stopped due to acrimony all around.Ladies and gentlemen, Nick Gillespie for the libertarians, serving their traditional role in these interparty disputes.
the idea of a Republican AG would really restart any number of
ReplyDeleteconversations that have stalled out or stopped due to acrimony all
around.Yeah, Nick, I hear both John Ashcroft and Alberto Gonzales are available. I dunno if John Yoo would want to give up his cushy Berkeley Law gig, though.
Or, wait! Of course. Rand Paul, the schmibertarian wet dream. He could self-certify as an attorney, and then support law enforcement use of drones against non-white people while refusing to uphold what's left of the Civil Rights Act. And if you caught his latest performance at the Values Voters conference, you'd be reassured that he's completely in line with American right-libertarian thought.
(Hm, if the appointment were after the election, could Governor Steve Beshear appoint himself to the vacancy? At least he's willing to defend Kentucky's ACA exchange, unlike the current Democratic Senate candidate.)
Having a Defense secretary from the other party makes war bipartisan
ReplyDeleteI too fondly remember when George W. Bush reached across the aisle to appoint Donald Rumsfeld.
I'm having a hard time remembering the last time a GOP president had a Democratic cabinet member. My memory must be failing.
ReplyDeleteGonzales is dean of the College of Law at Belmont University (Nashville). Not quite as cushy as UC Berkeley, but still he's still busy feathering his nest in academia.
ReplyDeleteBush had a democrat fr transport or so.
ReplyDeleteYeah, bring a Republican in to enforce voting laws.
ReplyDeleteWhat could possibly go wrong?
From a Republican / royal libertarian point of view? Nothing.
ReplyDeleteIt's also instructive to note that the SecDef that these guys loved, Donald Rumsfeld, had no history of military service while Chuck Hagel was at Viet Nam War combat veteran with two Purple Hearts.
ReplyDeleteBut of course, it being Hagel, they saw McNamara as thesis, Rumsfeld as antithesis, and could not get to Hagel as sythesis.
Their occasional swinging of the bipartisanship incense pot probably
ReplyDeletedoesn't convince much of anyone anymore, but it's always good to be
reminded that our cynicism is amply justified.
The WaPo loves that shit. David Brode's ghost even pops a boner.
~
Hagel as sythesis
ReplyDeleteYou did that on purpose!
Republicans don't want no damn synthetic SoD, they want a Real Man™, like, say, the illegitimate son of Curtis LeMay and Buck Turgidson...
ReplyDeleteMay I just call "bullshit" on this
ReplyDeleteI think we're all gonna be doing that all day, and into the night...
...occasional swinging of the bipartisanship incense pot probably doesn't convince much of anyone anymore...
ReplyDeleteIt's not meant to convince anyone. It's yet another theoretically-plausible-but-in-reality-impossible threshold that Reynolds can blame Obama for failing to meet, so he can clutch his pearls over the beleaguered state of our poor Union and find the Democrats and President wanting once again. Obama could appoint ol' "Ten Commandments" Roy Moore to the post and Reynolds would still be rolling around in his masturbatory self-pity.
I'm pretty sure that both the words "and" and "for" are not lies, obscenities, or offenses against intellect.
ReplyDeletePretty sure.
"This is really childishly stupid..."
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that the track record of all of those secretaries has been abominably bad on that accountability thing (the DoD was ordered by Congress to be fully audited by 2015, and they've pleaded stupidity over and over again and now say they might be able to do it by 2018).
None of them have exactly gained reputations for veracity. Virtually all of them have overseen truly pig-worthy increases in their budgets and at least a couple of them stood by while defense aerospace bribed more people in more places in the Pentagon than in the country's entire history (remember Operation Ill Wind?).
Don't even get me started on snowflakes.
Oh, yeah, they're fucking wizards at defense.
Glenn Reynolds: the Lucy van Pelt of punditry.
ReplyDeleteOperation Ill Wind
ReplyDeleteThat was just after Jonah G. did a Taco Bell run, right?
How many times do we have to be lied to?
ReplyDelete"How many times? Dear God, how many times?"
"UIntil we get it right"
Unmatched at defending their budget.
ReplyDeleteOh, a Republican AG? Like Earl Warren maybe. By the end of the Administration he'd be just another traitor.
ReplyDeleteJesus christ, I can't wait for a reporter with enough guts to burn a few 'anonymous sources'
ReplyDeleteBecause even when Republicans lose elections, they deserve to be running the government. Bipartisanship is for the lower orders, not the GOP.
ReplyDeleteVirtually all of them have overseen truly pig-worthy increases in their budgets
ReplyDeleteIncluding billions for toys the Army, Navy and Air Force said they didn't actually want or need...
I hear Eliot Spitzer is available for the job.
ReplyDeleteIn truth, they've had no small amount of help from the Dems, going all the way back to Scoop Jackson (D-Boeing). Even when the Dems have been well aware that the Pentagon is a cesspit of profligacy and craven fearmongering, they've been loathe to do anything about it for fear of being derided as "soft on defense."
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to the DoD, it's an equal opportunity disaster area.
"Try again. Fail again. Fail better." —Samuel Beckett
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't be so confident, in this context.
ReplyDeleteTransportation is indeed a cabinet position, and Bush nominated Norman Mineta to the job, the only Democrat who served in Bush's cabinet in eight years. And, since I don't believe in coincidences, it was a Dem who got the hot seat for the FAA's performance on 9/11.
ReplyDeleteIf it even vaguely involves Von Spakovsky, it's crooked.
ReplyDeleteYes, and let's not forget how G.H.W. Bush healed the nation by choosing Dick Cheney.
ReplyDeleteUm, Rumsfeld did serve--mostly after the Korean war as a pilot instructor. Not long, though. Apparently just long enough to convince his ego that he was qualified to run the world.
ReplyDeleteIf you don't want to get off the boat, at least check the URLs, which explains everything: the softbatch bipartisan whinging is in USA Today, the screaming raw meat is from Pajamas Media.
ReplyDeleteThis is how you move the Overton Window. It also looks a lot like how you sustain an abusive relationship.
I think that would be the first hearing ever in which all the Senators from Wall Street would physically attack a nominee.
ReplyDeleteAnd let's not forget that Cheney used his time in that office to heal the balance sheet of Halliburton/KBR.
ReplyDeleteOle Perfesser Glenn Reynolds thinks Obama should pick a Republican for Attorney General because bipartisanship:
ReplyDeleteI thought the Kenyan Usurper was going to use Chicago thug tactics to kill the GOP... what gives here?
I'm not sure I want war to be bipartisan but the idea of a Republican AG would really restart any number of conversations that have stalled out or stopped due to acrimony all around.
ReplyDeleteGiven today's GOP, the only conversation a Republican AG would start is whether they'd imprison Obama for life or publicly execute him for un-Americanism and treasonous blackitude- in other words, the Boehner approach or the Gohmert approach.
Hans von Spa (see below) asserted at one point that Holder was "indispensable" to Obama.
ReplyDeleteHow's he supposed to work his Stalinist takeover now?
The truly funny bit in that: "I'm not sure I want war to be bipartisan...."
ReplyDeleteY'know, I can't decide if Gillespie thinks that only the right wing is entitled to mass slaughter, or if he just doesn't appreciate that war should be the one fucking thing on which everyone agrees.
The clanging stupidity over at Reason's offices must be deafening.
only the right wing is entitled to mass slaughter
ReplyDeleteOf course it is!
They're the party of National Security.
take a lesson
ReplyDeleteObama appointed THREE Republicans to his cabinet when inaugurated -- to make it the most bipartisan in history -- and it was Republicans who said absolutely fucking not. Anyone remember Judd Gregg? Remember how he accepted Commerce, then got leaned on by fellow Repubs to de-accept? Being a class act, of course that's exactly what he did, while blaming Obama for the mess he made.
I also sorta remember Obama Team-of-Rivalsing what's-his-name into being Ambassador to China, and the thanks we got for it in 2012. Call me when Rand Paul sends Gillibrand to Moscow.
Oh, the only way Paul would send Gillibrand to Moscow would be by extraordinary rendition.
ReplyDeleteOh, given the context, there's no way I'm taking those two words out of their level-3 biohazard container.
ReplyDeleteYou think the conversations are about voter fraud and good reasons for torturing people? Me too. If I hear one of them my acrimony is going to have to cleared off with a snow plow.
ReplyDeleteAnd when Ross Douthat finally realized he'd lost the culture war, he told gays to be magnanimous in victory by never actually using any of their civil rights.
ReplyDeleteLogic and empathy have failed them but they'll always have whining and begging.
So Reynolds really did, at some point, mention the many Democratic defense secretaries appointed by recent Republican administrations, right? I mean, he's not that intellectually fraudulent, is he? Being a college professor and everything....?
ReplyDelete(There's also the Issa Approach--imprison Obama for car theft in Benghazi)
ReplyDeleteI'd argue exactly the opposite, as a secure USA wouldn't give them the fear they seem to need. And think the rest of us do, too...
ReplyDeleteDoes 0 count as "any number?"
ReplyDeleteThese wingnuts don't comprise a political party. They're a Little Rascals fraternal organization--the We Hate Liberals! Club. To maintain membership in good standing, all you have to do is write something critical of liberals that seems plausible *to other members*. It doesn't matter if it's sheer nonsense or if it changes from day to day or hour to hour. Accuracy of analysis, consistency of principles, proof, truth--none of these matter. You don't write to persuade. You write to signify "I'm still in the club."
ReplyDeleteto get the ball rolling
ReplyDeleteI see what you did there...
Oh, I'm not talking actual security; it's National Security in GOP terms, i.e. War Of the Month.
ReplyDeleteAlways need to keep poking that hornet's nest, after all.
Technically, yes.
ReplyDeleteBy the end of the nomination announcement he'd be just another traitor.Fixed that for you, Jay B. (See "Chuck Hagel" in the original post.)
ReplyDeleteI read that in USA today and was like wtf is this? Then I saw it was the ole perfesser.
ReplyDeleteSo I was looking around for all the examples of where the Republican prez picked the Democrat AG and SoD. Couldn't come up with any.
the way we handle the Department of Defense,
ReplyDeleteand apply it to the Department of Justice: [my emphasis]
As others have wondered, how many examples are there of presidents from the Prof's party actually doing this? Which alternative universe is he talking about?
Shirley it would be a step forward if Democratic politicians some time actually vote against one of the wars demanded by Republicans.
ReplyDeleteLET US CLASP HANDS OVER THE BLOODY CHASMAlas, yes, in a world where Greeley's vision didn't win out, we wouldn't have to give a fuck what a pustulence of bigoted pro-nullification theocratic traitors thinks about anything. Instead, we'll get to see even more of them elected to the House and Senate later this year.
ReplyDeleteOld joke: A flight attendant dies and goes to Heaven. While St. Peter is showing her around, she notices a guy dressed in a pilot's uniform. She tugs St. Peter's sleeve, points at the pilot, and asks who it is. "Oh," says St. Peter. "That's God. Sometimes he thinks he's a pilot."
ReplyDeleteWhat a Mel Brooks creation that man is - from his name to his actions to his writings to his smirk. His Igorian companion J. Christian Adams is the perfect Costello for the act. And yet, I've never been able to laugh, not even sardonically.
ReplyDeleteGlenn Harlan Reynolds isn't going to be satisfied with anything the president does until Obama signs the "Free Sexbot for Instapundit" act of 2014.
ReplyDeleteThe very definition of concern trolling.
ReplyDeleteYou know, it might be worth it if it would keep him occupied.
ReplyDeletethe idea of a Republican AG would really restart any number of
ReplyDeleteconversations that have stalled out or stopped due to acrimony all
around.
Ideas are MAGIC.
P.S. Acrimony all around, eh? Bite me.
the idea of a Republican AG would really restart any number of conversations that have stalled out or stopped due to acrimony all around
ReplyDeleteFunny how all these "solutions" to widespread acrimony involve other people making concessions to Republicans/conservatives, isn't it?
"Legal Advice - 5 cents"
ReplyDeleteLook America is bleeding. It's time to heal the wounds and stop this divisiveness that's tearing the nation apart. The president and vice-president should resign and make way for President Boehner. Then when the Republicans take the Senate, we might finally see true bipartisan government. Well as long as that Ginsberg #%$@$ dies soon so Boehner can appoint a bipartisan judge like Ted Cruz.
ReplyDeleteI thought these guys all hated the idea of "conversations" like "conversation on race" or "conversations about violence." They are like: action this day, motherfuckers.
ReplyDeleteThey already died of shame.
ReplyDelete"And a poopy-head as well" well la-ti-dah aren't we fancy, mater?
ReplyDeleteSurely legitimate--or do you mean that they would be for the chimera but still against gay marriage?
ReplyDeleteWell--the sending of Whats-His-Name to China was actually a stroke of genius since it defenestrated Huntsman quite nicely as a potential Republican rival. But thank's a bunch for reminding me of Judd Gregg. Also, I have a dim memory of William Cohen stabbing Obama in the back as well but I can't track it down.
ReplyDeletePresident Boehner
ReplyDeleteBWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I could have Googled, but I chose to talk out of my ass.
ReplyDeleteIf war is bipartisan, then who the fuck is gonna play the role of the Dirty Hippy? What's the fun in war if there are no Dirty Hippies to punch. Is Gillepsie supposed to just punch any old random Quaker?
ReplyDeleteand pro-life
ReplyDeleteSome dictator he turned out to be. Thanks Obama!
ReplyDeleteThere's also something deeply fucked about looking at war and thinking, "Sure it's great, but I'd feel so much better if it were bipartisan."
ReplyDeleteThe Pundit is [OUT]
ReplyDeleteThat pales to how, when choosing George W. Bush's running mate, Dick Cheney chose himself.
ReplyDeleteI honestly think Obama gave up on "reaching across the aisle" last year when the Republicans closed down the government. He truly believed that he could make a budget deal if he were willing to cut spending. It took him that long to understand that these guys don't really care what the policies are, they just want to be in charge.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to ask Professor Robotron if he supported bipartisan reach-across-the-aisle Obama appointee Jon Huntsman in the 2012 GOP primary.
ReplyDeleteReynolds believes that there are benefits to having a defense secretary from the other party and he also believes that Hagel was a poor choice. There is no inconsistency here and your blog post is characteristically stupid.
ReplyDeleteAre you spreading your brand of stupidity to new sites? Wasn't Drums blog enough for your one shot conservawanking?
ReplyDeleteHas GlennBot ever supported a Republican having a Democratic defense secretary, or for that matter, any other Democrat in a Cabinet post?
ReplyDeleteDo you tug your forelock when you cross the path of those richer than yourself?
~
Maybe he'd settle for a laser penis?
ReplyDelete~
No doubt Mrs. Ole Perfesser would.
ReplyDeleteReynolds did posts on him like "JAMES TARANTO ON MILITARY JUSTICE
ReplyDeletePass. If, however, you've got Taranto on a slowly turning spit, I'll take a look.
At L Ron Hoover's Church of Appliantology Discount Outlet you can get both!
ReplyDeleteHe would feel better because then nobody could point at any single party and say, "YOU people are responsible for this cockup!"
ReplyDeleteHence the great push by Bush to make Iraq bipartisan, and the "with us or agin us" nonsense that included anyone here at home who didn't agree.
One hopes. Reaching across the aisle hasn't gotten him - or us - anything better than a severed hand so far.
ReplyDeleteIt's even more instructive to note how Republicans treat actual veterans like Kerry, Cleland,--hell, they even ran down Bob Dole when Dole had the temerity to speak up for disabled Vets.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans revere service--so long as no service member or veteran expects that reverence to take any form beyond a smile and a lapel flag pin.
Oh yes, the Judd Gregg fiasco. I'd already known that "character", "bipartisanship" and "civility" were all - at least in the context of national politics - complete shams, but Gregg's buckling and his fuck-you to the open gesture Obama had made really brought it home.
ReplyDeleteIt's like the "pull the football away" trick, only he's not holding a football in the first place.
ReplyDeleteIs Gillepsie supposed to just punch any old random Quaker?Hey, those records were sealed.
ReplyDeleteThat's no forelock.
ReplyDeleteJust for fun, let's tell Gillespie that his own scrotum is a dirty hippie.
ReplyDeleteIf he believes in the benefits of having a defense secretary from the other party I'm sure he must have made the same suggestion to Bush scores of times, right?
ReplyDeleteAdmittedly, I was too busy chuckling over Gillespie's idiocy to more artfully phrase that time-honored notion that was is so serious we should not be engaging in it except as a last resort and with consensus.
ReplyDeleteNow that war is the first option, and Congress seems ready, if not eager, to turn over its war-making powers to any President that comes along, it's no wonder that Gillespie thinks that war ought to be a partisan matter.
Quoting Taranto on anything is pretty much proof that we're in the grip of a national institutional insanity.
ReplyDeleteIt's a bit like saying, "well, Charles Manson thinks...."
Reynolds has got the "public" part of "public intellectual" down pat.
ReplyDeleteHe's still working on "intelleckshul."
Funny, I never saw that appointment as anything other than using Huntsman's business connections for trade advantage--or continuing trade disadvantage, as the case may be. (Huntsman's billions come from the expandable foam plastics business, and a lot of the plastics business has gone to China.) One thing this administration cannot be accused of is taking a labor-centric view of trade, and Huntsman, as a Republican billionaire, made a good fit for the administration's ambitions on that front.
ReplyDeleteAh, well, these things turn out for the best--Obama, instead, got at Commerce a billionaire, which is really, really, impressive (as long as one forgets that she was the honcho of a bank that failed due to subprime loans eight years before the meltdown--that's makes her a real trendsetter, I suppose).
ReplyDeleteIt's not exactly Andrew Mellon at Treasury, but, it's close.
I saw it as a good fit--the guy speaks mandarin, for christ's sake, is a middle of the roader (not to sound too chinese about it), a businessman, and also was definitely a potential rival for the next round of presidential races. Its not like they were going to appoint a chinese dissident to the post, or a human rights expert.
ReplyDeleteSince the dawn of the interwebs we've been told by wingnuts that "every war was started by the Dummycraps" and that the Iraq War only happened because "Kerry, Pelosi, Reid and Clinton voted for it, it's bipartisan, so shut up, that's why".
ReplyDeleteIt helps when you're party is 110% shameless hypocrites.
Quoting Taranto? Hell, I'd quote Tarantino on military justice first.
ReplyDeleteWhich alternative universe is he talking about?
ReplyDeleteIt's the Broderverse. That happy magical place where Democrats and Republicans all agree to implement Republican policies.
Reynolds also, being a glibertarian on a government payroll, believes six impossible things before breakfast (one preferably served by sexbots).
ReplyDeleteJust musing here on the relationship between Dan Quayle and his VP chief of staff, Bloody Bill Kristol. I'm pretty certain they were both sure they were smarter than the other.
ReplyDeleteShorter: none of them are that bright.
It's just precious that the Libertarians think they're so much smarter and more sophisticated than ordinary Pugs, even though, to the casual observer, the difference is negligible.
ReplyDeleteProblem is, the club is also working as an implement of destruction to pound us with. Speaking as a resident of CO, where nutjob Gardner is looking like he'll take down Udall for senate.
ReplyDeleteEh, the recent increase in volume is seasonal, as in "election season". Who is supposed to hear it are those lucky citizens who never pay attention to politics until they catch a hint or two that hey, an election is about to happen and perhaps they could fit in a bit of time in a voting booth. All the "bipartisanship has left the building, so punish them!" whinging is just to try to swing votes in that demographic.
ReplyDeleteWe could change the colors of our flag to Orangeman and bourbon.
ReplyDeleteIt's very cleansing!
ReplyDeleteAt the dissipated, trailing-off end of this thread, I'll just mention that the Dems aren't doing themselves any favors on this front, either. Jane Harman just said yesterday that Obama ought to consider Ted Olsen--Ted Fucking Olsen, the premier Federalist Society insider and hatchet man--for Attorney General.
ReplyDeleteThanks for shooting us all in the foot, Jane.
For the record, today Heather Digby Parton posted an article at Salon that is half just a cut and paste of Roy's post above. To be fair, she does credit him, and it's good to see the word getting out? The other half of her article is a cut and paste of the Politico page about the issue. Some people make journalism look so easy.
ReplyDelete