Retaining Gates; Bye Bye Brennan

by Deacon Blues

I plan on writing more about Obama’s cabinet choices, and what they say about him. However, there were two pieces of news I wanted to pass along tonight. First, why was Robert Gates kept aboard at the Pentagon tonight? If Obama really wanted to have Republicans in his cabinet, couldn't he find a Republican who represented a clean break from the Bush Administration for SecDef, like Chuck Hagel?

Secondly, John Brennan, who advised Obama on intelligence issues and had been considered a leading contender for either CIA Director or the Director of National Intelligence withdrew his name from consideration today. Why did he do it? Brennan blamed liberal blogs and their truthful linking of him to Bush’s secret detention, rendition, and illegal surveillance policies. Glenn Greenwald pokes a hole in Brennan's pathetic misdirection attempt here.

Make no mistake: Brennan supports telecom amnesty, rendition, and the black sites used by the Agency in violation of the Geneva Convention protocols. He tried to slither away from his despicable support of these policies while at the Agency through the Nuremberg defense that he was not the actual decision-maker, but only carrying out orders. He blamed the blogs for making him withdraw from consideration, because they had the temerity to hold him accountable for what he supports.

Make no mistake about another thing: Obama doesn’t care one damn bit what liberal blogs say about him, so the notion that heat from the blogs caused this is laughable on its face.

The real issue here, aside from Brennan’s lack of integrity, is that Obama seemingly was prepared to nominate someone for either of these posts who willfully carried out Dick Cheney’s playbook.

We know that Obama isn't a progressive, but is it that hard to find a tough intelligence professional who isn't stained with Cheney residue? And can someone tell me what exactly Gates has done to warrant being kept around for 6-12 months as a reminder of Bush's Iraq and Afghanistan disasters?