One Hand Clapping
RSS/XML | Add to My Yahoo!| Essays | Disclaimer | Main Page | My Bio | | Archives | Backup Site

Wednesday, May 12, 2004


Kerry's picks for defense secretary
Rumsfeld fails to make the short list. Or the long one.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry named Senators John McCain, John Warner and Carl Levin as potential nominees for secretary of defense in his administration should he be elected this fall. He also said he might tap Bill Clinton's SecDef (after Les Aspin served), William Perry.

Responding to "concerns that a change in Pentagon leadership could hurt the war effort" and that Rumsfeld should stay on even if Kerry wins, Kerry told interviewer Don Imus,

If America has reached a point where only one person has the ability in our great democracy to manage the Pentagon and to continue or to put in place a better policy even, we're in deeper trouble than you think. I don't accept that. I just don't accept that. I think that's an excuse. The fact is that we need a change in policy.
The expectation that Kerry will retain any Bush appointee in office, including Clinton CIA-chief holdover George Tenet, is just looney. That being said, Kerry's point is well said that no one in the Pentagon, including Rumsfeld, is somehow indispensable.

As Charles de Gaulle said, "Cemeteries are full of indispensable men."

by Donald Sensing, 5/12/2004 01:34:12 PM. Permalink |  





Feedburner RSS/XML readers online:


Home