Pentagon Subordinates
A lot of people have been wondering what Bob Gates’ retention means for the giant cast of subordinate appointees who populated the Department of Defense. Are all those jobs going to Republicans? The answer is no:
Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, Gates’s right-hand man in running the Pentagon day to day, is widely expected to leave his post, said the officials, one of whom noted that England’s speechwriter is reportedly taking another job.
Leading candidates to replace England include Obama campaign adviser Richard J. Danzig, who could eventually replace Gates; Pentagon transition review team co-leader Michèle A. Flournoy; and possibly former Pentagon comptroller William J. Lynn, said Obama transition officials and sources close to the transition. [...]
The four undersecretaries of defense are also expected to leave, Pentagon and transition officials said. These include Undersecretary for Policy Eric S. Edelman, who has announced that he will depart by Jan. 20, with Flournoy also a candidate to replace him. John J. Young Jr., undersecretary for acquisition, technology and logistics, is “without question” leaving, a source close to the transition said, noting that Gates has publicly criticized the Pentagon’s unwieldy acquisition process as shortchanging U.S. troops in the field.
Steve Benen observes “It’s unclear if the shift in deputies was part an arrangement worked out between Gates and Obama’s team, or if these officials were planning to depart anyway.” To provide some background and context, you need to understand that a lot of these guys were never Gates’ people anyway. Gates and Donald Rumsfeld had some pretty different ideas about a lot of stuff, but when Gates joined the Bush administration he wasn’t given the opportunity to clean house, fire everyone, and bring his own people on board. Since he’s been in office for a couple of years there’s been some turnover since that time, but still a guy like Edelman has always been a Cheney/Rumsfeld guy who happens to be serving as one of Gates’ top deputies, not a Gates guy who Gates is desperate to hang on to. In fact, I think we can be fairly certain that Gates’ views are closer to those of a moderate Democrat like Flournoy than to Edelman. So whether or not to get rid of people probably wasn’t a bone of contention between Gates and the transition. What needs to be negotiated isn’t whether or not some of these folks need to go, it’s who to replace them with.
Now it seems to me that at some point the Democratic Party is going to want to put a Democrat in charge of the Pentagon, so it’s especially important to see if someone like a Danzig or a Flournoy is given the deputy spot. You could easily imagine either of them serving as secretary in the future, but probably either one would be considered somewhat underseasoned at this point absent something like a spell as deputy secretary to acquire the requisite experience.
25 Responses to “Pentagon Subordinates”
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December 2nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
That’s what bugs me about the Gates thing. It makes it look like we Dems need to bring in a Republican to run Defense. Meanwhile they’re the ones who put a cadre of morons in charge of national defense.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:44 am
That’s what bugs me about the Gates thing. It makes it look like we Dems need to bring in a Republican to run Defense.
What makes it look like that is Democrats constantly saying that it makes it look like that. There are any number of good defenses of keeping Gates on. The best way to avoid the charge that Democrats need to bring in a Republican to run defense is to highlight these, rather than to constantly whine about how this makes it seem like Democrats can’t run defense.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:58 am
And the good thing about this is that we can keep Gates in until we leave Iraq, then put in a seasoned-up Dem and what exactly has been lost in the intervening year?
Starting with Obama’s inauguration, we have to re-adjust our timeframes: the presidency lasts for eight years, and you can’t anticipate every opportunity that opens up, or when momentum will be there or not. Sometimes, on things like getting people used to Dems running defense, there’s more value in what happens in 2010-2012 than just in 2009.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:21 pm
Do voters really pay that much attention to whether the Secretary of Defense is a Republican or a Democrat? If things go well on the defense and national security, Obama and Democrats will get plenty of credit from the public even with Gates remaining in place.
And it’s not like Gates is expected to stay for all that long anyway.
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Somewhat off-topic, if a person is charged with helping run the Pentagon day-to-day, does he really need his own speechwriter? Can’t he share with somebody else?
December 2nd, 2008 at 1:07 pm
Best to emphasize that it is Gates who has agreed to work for Obama and institute his policies, not Obama needing to compromise with Gates. They agree on military reform and having a veteran Republican on hand to take the heat when Obama takes away a few expensive toys from the air force and navy is all to the good.
December 2nd, 2008 at 2:30 pm
I met Gordon England during a school trip. He seemed like a decent enough fellow and I definitely remember him telling us he was leaving at the end of Bush’s term.
December 2nd, 2008 at 7:36 pm
To paraphrase Harry Reid (and noting DTM’s info above), how do we know that Gates is in any sense a Republican? He was a College Republican, yes. But he also served under every president from Nixon on, except for Clinton. In his book, From the Shadows, he is generous with praise of Carter. He portrays the American foreign policy establishment throughout the Cold War as one in which competing interests and perspectives served as mutual correctives, with presidents generally tacking to the center and a rough bipartisan consensus prevailing. He acknowledges some frustration with constraints imposed by a usually Democratic Congress on the Executive branch and intelligence agencies, but he also acknowledges that strong oversight and restraint was necessary to curb cowboy impulses in the executive. Moreover, Obama is broadly in sync with Gates’ policy orientation and perhaps even more so with his management style. Democrats have zilch to be defensive about with regard to this appointment. Gates is a national treasure. The longer he serves, the better.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Gates was part of the Iraq Study Group. They made some really good recommendations that Bush totally ignored.
I think this is a good move for Obama on a number of levels.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:57 pm
God, some people just can’t seem to grasp that Obama was serious about that new politics thing. He isn’t concerned about needing a progressive Democrat in at SecDef to prove that Democrats can be strong on defense. Gates is staying because he has proved that he is currently the best man for the job. I know a lot of people here hate, absolutely hate, anything with the hint of a conservative or Republican, but Obama should never have been your guy then. He will not wage a partisan war to destroy the “Rethuglicans” or whatever you guys call them. He wants to get the agenda he campaigned for enacted, not a secret, even more liberal agenda. So far, everything he has done has given me hope in having been a supporter from the beginning.
Progressives can be as self-certain, insular, and intolerant as right-wingers. You guys need to be better than that.
December 2nd, 2008 at 9:46 pm
Correction to my comment (#9) above: Gates did say today that he considers himself a Republican.
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:05 am
Gates views are close to whoever is fucking keeping him in his position. Period.
Google – everybody who’s commented on him has said this.
Besides which, the problem is Obama, not Gates, just like the problem was Bush, not Gates. If Obama’s foreign policy is “Bush Lite”, then Gates will implement it. Gates does not make policy. He does what he’s told and his “advice” mirrors whatever his boss tells him.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
It makes it look like we Dems need to bring in a Republican to run Defense.
No, bringing in a Republican would do that. If Gates is replaced by a Republican, that would bug me, that would leave the impression you mention.
But keeping a cabinet holdover for a little while to finish a difficult job is no big deal.
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