The Trump Cabinet: Bonfire of the Agencies
Trump’s nominees challenge the out-of-control administrative state.
By Charles Krauthammer — December 15, 2016
Democrats spent the first two decades of the post–Cold War era rather relaxed about Russian provocations and revanchism. President Obama famously mocked Mitt Romney in 2012 for suggesting that Russia was our principal geopolitical adversary. Yet today the Dems are in high dudgeon over the closeness of the secretary-of-state nominee, Rex Tillerson, to Vladimir Putin.
Hypocrisy aside, it is true that, as head of ExxonMobil, Tillerson made major deals with Russia, received Russia’s Order of Friendship, and opposed U.S. sanctions. That’s troubling but not necessarily disqualifying. At the time, after all, Tillerson was acting as an agent of ExxonMobil, whose interest it is to extract oil and make money.
These interests do not necessarily overlap with those of the United States. The relevant question is whether and how Tillerson distinguishes between the two and whether as agent of the United States he would adopt a tougher Russia policy than he did as agent of ExxonMobil.
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http://www.nationalreview.com/node/443101/print
