Republicans, Back Off on Christopher Hill

While I'm on the subject of destroying America by being obstructionist on every issue, what about the Republicans blocking the confirmation of Christopher Hill to be Ambassador to Iraq? The opposition is being led by John McCain and Lindsey Graham, two men who claim to be military patriots. This article in Foreign Affairs says that they are seriously upsetting the US military that wants an ambassador in place to take some of the burden for running Iraq off of the military.

Hill was a loyal diplomat for Bush, but because he worked on North Korea, the Republicans want his head. It's the same kind of McCarthyism directed at the State Department that destroyed career diplomat Chas Freeman's nomination to head of the CIA's NIC. Republicans are just not happy unless their killing children, or getting the Israelis to do it for them. I thought John McCain was supposed to be some kind of moderate. I don't think so. He must be extremely bitter about his loss in the Presidential election and has just decided to destroy America, since it didn't vote for him.

Republicans, Back Off on Geithner!

The Republicans need to back off on calling for Treas Sec Geithner's head. As this FT editorial says, he deserves to be given a chance. Geithner didn't cause this crisis, the Republicans did, with all their pro-business legislation (or lack thereof) during the last eight years. Geithner may not have covered himself with glory, but he's working hard, and he has little help, because all the Wall Street tycoons who should be helping him in senior Treasury positions can't or won't because of their criminal conduct working on Wall Street.

By calling for his ouster or even by screaming criticism at him, Republicans are trying to get rid of or immobilize the captain of a ship while it is caught in a hurricane. Even it he's not the best captain, he understands the situation, and he's all we've got. We're in a situation where we don't even have a first mate. Calling for Geithner's ouster is tantamount to calling for the destruction of the American economy. It's grossly irresponsible.

Immoral Elites and Obama's Cabinet

The talking heads are decrying Obama's difficulty in filling cabinet and sub-cabinet positions. I don't think it's mainly Obama's fault. The problem is the immorality and greed of the elite leaders who would normally take such positions. We see potential nominees dropping like flies because they didn't pay their taxes. I agree with Joe Biden that paying taxes is a patriotic duty. So, if these people didn't pay their taxes, then we know what they think of the United States. It's me first, country second (or third or fourth or whatever).

The other problem is pay. Government salaries are peanuts to the elites who should be government leaders. This just shows how out of whack the class and pay system is in the US. Almost all the nominees have to make enormous financial sacrifices to take jobs that would pay well for the great mass of Americans. Decent men would be willing to serve their country, but today, while greed is endemic, men who hold high positions in private life are unwilling to enter public service.

More on Chas Freeman's Withdrawal

The Chas Freeman scandal of character assassination by the Jewish “Israeli lobby” will probably end soon. There may be one last gasp; I heard that Freeman is supposed to appear on Fareed Zakaria’s CNN show. Meanwhile, there has been some outcry in the mass media, most notably David Broder’s column in the Washington Post, “The Country’s Loss,” and Stephen Walt and Paul Pillar in Foreign Policy. The defense of Freeman has been small in comparison to the Jewish onslaught, including Jonathan Chait of the New Republic, Michael Goldfarb at the Weekly Standard, Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic, Gabriel Schoenfeld (writing on the op-ed page of the Wall Street Journal), Jonah Goldberg of National Review, Marty Peretz on his New Republic blog, and former AIPAC official Steve Rosen.

Walt’s Foreign Policy comment makes all the important points. For me the most important is the dire implication for intellectual honesty in intelligence analysis. All analysis affecting Israel is guaranteed to be characterized by self-censorship and political correctness. As Walt points out, it indicates that Israel’s supporters do not believe that Israel’s relationship with the US can survive honest scrutiny.

I thought the New York Times report of Freeman's withdrawal was pretty straightforward, although it managed to have a tone that said, "We love Israel," even if it didn't say it in so many words. After all, the Jewish-owned, usually intellectually honest NYT doesn't want to suffer the same fate at the hands of the Israel lobby that Freeman and the CIA did.