The Rest of the NatSec Team…
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Flynn is NSA, and Pompeo will be at CIA. See Chris Mirasola’s thoughts here; long story short, neither of them are great, and both are probably on the negative side of what we would expect from a “normal” GOP administration. Flynn is paranoid, has major axes to grind with a lot of different people, and has extensive Russian ties; Pompeo is pro-torture and anti-Iran deal. Major. Ugly. Shit.
Here’s the SecState shortlist, in my order of preference:
- Mitt Romney: Not insane, reasonably well-respected in the international community, sufficient stature to say “no” to some of the worst impulses of Team Trump
- Zalmay Khalilzad See above, plus real-world diplomatic experience, minus some degree of stature.
- Bob Corker Less diplomatic experience than Khalilzhad, less stature than Romney
- Nikki R. Haley Ok, whatever. Getting to the dregs.
- Stanley A. McChrystal Smart enough guy in many ways, but no indication that he’ll have any institutional support to draw on, or that he knows much about the foreign service. Colin Powell with less experience and less gravitas
- Rudolph W. Giuliani Sweet Jeebus, there’s still someone below this line? Apart from all the disastrous bits, he’s a halfway competent administrator, and he is firmly committed to the political survival of Rudy Giuliani, which makes it possible that he won’t completely burn the place down.
- John R. Bolton Nexon prefers Bolton to Giuliani; I don’t. State Department rank and file hates Bolton; Bolton hates pretty much everything about the international community; true believer on the anti-Iran stuff; experienced enough to know where the bodies are buried, dig them up, and use them to beat survivors to death with.
SecDef I’m less worried about, because it tends to have some pretty wonky responsibilities:
- Stephen J. Hadley Bridge to the traditional GOP foreign policy elite
- Duncan Hunter Defense industry guy, but sometimes says no
- Jon Kyl Not quite sure why he’s here
- Tom Cotton Only one of these who could do some real damage