Matt Yglesias

44 Responses to “Defense Subcabinet Taking Shape”

1. John Kerry Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:11 pm

   None of this is really shocking, but the failure of Richard Danzig to land either the Deputy Secretary or the Undersecretary (Policy) job continues a trend in which those national security hands who got on board the Obama train early are not being rewarded for their trouble.

   What do you mean, “national security”?

2. Jason Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:13 pm

   “I’m fairly certain Flournoy is now the highest-ranking woman ever in the civilian Pentagon hierarchy.”

   Yep. Effectively, she’s the number 3 in the organization, a first for that job position. I’m not betting on her as a future SecDef, though, the men’s club being as it is. As for Danzig, you don’t think he’s just going to stay low until Gates leaves in 2010?

3. michael Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:16 pm

   How exactly does one make an accent grave? I’ve only ever succeeded in making an accent égu.

4. ozomatt Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:18 pm

   From what I understand, Danzig will come in “fresh” in the next 10-16 months with a new cadre of his own people. He doesn’t want to have an akward power sharing arrangement with Gates in the interim, and wants the ability to have an “out with the old, in the new” impact when he comes in. Apparently this has made staffing difficult as everyone wants to be part of second wave. I agree with you but apparently Flournoy, her writing on counter-insurgency and nation building has been pretty impressive.

5. tom athens Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:21 pm

   do you know whether Samantha Power is involved in any way in the transition,new administration etc?

6. daveNYC Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:25 pm

   “…making the tough choices necessary to ensure that American tax dollars are spent wisely.” Right now he’s working in government relations for Raytheon…

   I bet I can guess what his definition of ’spent wisely’ is.

7. Andrew Fly Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:26 pm

   This may just be anecdotal, but it seems that the Air Force is the least conservative of the 4 branches. I’ve been looking for figures, anyone have any?

8. Hèrschel Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 3:40 pm

   I say wè all pùt irrèlevant accents graves over ràndom lètters.

9. JRC Montana Says:
   January 8th, 2009 at 4:03 pm

   There’s an excellent alternative to learning the keyboard combination for the accent grave: not giving in to the temptation to Frenchify the English Language. Aside from being pretentious, diacritical marks slow down typing and type setting, and reduce productivity. Is she entitled to have her name gravely rendered? Perhaps. Would she be wise to use a spelling that doesn’t employ diacriticals? You bet. And in the meantime, I’ll refer to her as Ms. Flournoy. Unless she has a more pretentious title, in which case I’ll use that…as long as it doesn’t have diacriticals.

   I know this will incite howls from language snobs. They should aim their indignation at the Moon.

10. rea Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

    Somebody sic Prof. Bérubé on JRC Montana . . .

11. Hèrschel Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    not giving in to the temptation to Frenchify the English Language

    The French feminine name, however, is “Michelle”, and carries no diacritic.

12. kid bitzer Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 4:13 pm

    i hear that they’re saving danzig for the job of undersecretary for the army air corps, after they disband the air force as a separate branch….

13. Mykl Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 4:18 pm

    Flournoy will be the highest ranking female at DoD ever, but not by much. Tina Jonas was the Comptroller for the last couple of years.

14. MHD Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 4:26 pm

    Sheila Widnall was Secretary of the Air Force from 1993-97. I don’t know if that’s higher than Flournoy’s position or not.

15. Fred Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    “Sheila Widnall was Secretary of the Air Force from 1993-97. I don’t know if that’s higher than Flournoy’s position or not.”

    Who could forget Sheila Widnall?

16. French uncle Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 5:00 pm

    Héèêrschel, I have ä Swiss keyboard, sö better for you not looking for a fight…

    Anyway, Michèle is the right French spelling, as in the nursery rhyme.
    Michelle is a new variation, under English influence.

17. French uncle Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 5:02 pm

    I am much better with diacritical than with English grammar, anyway.

18. Klaus Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 5:22 pm

    “Sheila Widnall was Secretary of the Air Force from 1993-97. I don’t know if that’s higher than Flournoy’s position or not.”

    In terms of influencing national security policy USDP beats SAF, hands down. SAF is almost exclusively concerned with training and equipping the Air Force while USDP is basically first alternate Deputy Secretary of Defense and works closely with National Security Counsel deputies and sometimes principals.

19. Où sont les neiges? Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 6:06 pm

    If you really need to use unamerican furrin letters, a quick and dirty way to do it is to go into http://www.news.google.com, go to the bottom of the page, choose whatever heathen language you want, and copy and paste the character needed from articles on the language-specific site.

    à leurs études plutôt ; ожидания ; Σφοδρή

    Etc., etc., etc.

20. News Reference Says:
    January 8th, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    the sècrèt àccènt keyboard combination: “Cùt” and “Pàstè”

    !-)

21. Richard Steven Hack Says:
    January 9th, 2009 at 2:18 am

    “Change you can believe in”…

    Obama picks lobbyist as Pentagon No. 2
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obama_defense

    WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama, who deliberately distanced himself from lobbyists during his campaign and his transition, appointed a defense contractor’s lobbyist Thursday to become his No. 2 official at the Defense Department. Obama acknowledged that his choice appeared to break with his self-imposed rules to keep lobbyists at arm’s length.

    William J. Lynn III, Obama’s choice for deputy defense secretary, was senior vice president for government operations at Raytheon Co. and lobbied as recently as last June on issues including missiles, sensors and radar, advanced technology programs and intelligence funding.

    Obama has vowed that no political appointees in his administration would be permitted to work on areas that “directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” His transition team said Lynn was worth the apparent exception to the spirit of Obama’s anti-lobbyists policy. It said it will work with Lynn to maintain Obama’s high ethics standards.

    Yeah, right…

    Suckers…

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    # Richard Steven Hack Says:
    January 9th, 2009 at 2:18 am

    “Change you can believe in”…

    Obama picks lobbyist as Pentagon No. 2
    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090108/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/obama_defense

    WASHINGTON – President-elect Barack Obama, who deliberately distanced himself from lobbyists during his campaign and his transition, appointed a defense contractor’s lobbyist Thursday to become his No. 2 official at the Defense Department. Obama acknowledged that his choice appeared to break with his self-imposed rules to keep lobbyists at arm’s length.

    William J. Lynn III, Obama’s choice for deputy defense secretary, was senior vice president for government operations at Raytheon Co. and lobbied as recently as last June on issues including missiles, sensors and radar, advanced technology programs and intelligence funding.

    Obama has vowed that no political appointees in his administration would be permitted to work on areas that “directly and substantially related to their prior employer for two years.” His transition team said Lynn was worth the apparent exception to the spirit of Obama’s anti-lobbyists policy. It said it will work with Lynn to maintain Obama’s high ethics standards.

    Yeah, right…

    Suckers…

    Actually, the article becomes less of a slavish, un-analytical
    rephrasing of a White House press release if you delete the word “high” from Obama’s transition team’s assessment of their man’s ethics standards.

    We’ll see how soon it takes Rod Blagojevich to die of an air embolism or wander in front of a hurtling city bus after his conviction on the charges of which he stands accused in part from investigation of Obams’s bagman Mike Rezko. We shouldn’t be too hard on Rezko… no Democratic incumbent in the White House, not even Carter, ever felt complete without a bagman and a steady flow of soft money into his control. But Obama seems to have already infuriated Carter’s offshore sugar daddy Qadaffi. No problem… his stepfather is well positioned to fix him up through Indonesian banks with funds to replace the money Qaddafi is no longer going to pay.