Tonight’s Bout: Mad Dog Mattis versus the Trump Transition Team

[corbe]

Tonight’s Bout: Mad Dog Mattis versus the Trump Transition Team

Posted at 5:52 pm on January 7, 2017 by streiff


Back in the early part of the 20th Century as recent Jewish immigrants to New York City imitated the Irish and Dutch and Germans before them by creating ethic political machines, when you sought a job on New York’s Lower East Side the first question asked was “who is your rabbi?” From this one answer the potential employer could tell a lot about your politics, your background, and your relative political worth to his organization. Without the right rabbi, you didn’t get a good job.

This is not new. The Royal Navy during the age of sail was built on a system of “interest.” You were employed or left ashore on half-pay based entirely upon the power of your patrons of higher rank. A young man with the right connections would be made captain at the first opportunity. Admiral Lord Rodney made his son captain at age 15. If you had a powerful patron, other senior officers might favor you as a way of currying favor with their superior. Without interest you might never achieve promotion or even employment.

To a great extent, the executive branch is staffed on a “who’s your rabbi basis.” A cabinet secretary might get a few positions to fill with his personal favorites but most of the Schedule C employees in the federal government, from Deputy Secretary down to GS-9 “confidential secretaries” and “special assistants” will be filled from the White House. Most of them will be either political donors or campaign staff or represent some particular constituency (like veterans groups, for instance) that the administration view as keen. Their loyalty will be to someone in the White House, not to their cabinet secretary.

One of the interesting jobs I had in the Pentagon was a tour as a military aide to an assistant secretary in one of the civilian cabinet departments. The assistant secretary and his deputy not only didn’t like each other but had different patrons. The patron of the deputy was more powerful than my boss’s and so he couldn’t even get rid of his own deputy who undercut him to the White House at every opportunity. To call this way of operating dysfunctional is an understatement.

This is what is playing out now in the Department of Defense where Secretary of Defense-designee James Mattis is locked in a battle of wills with the Trump transition team.

<..snip..>

But the arrangement started going south only two weeks later when Mattis had to learn from the news media that Trump had selected Vincent Viola, a billionaire Army veteran, to be secretary of the Army, one source close to the transition said.

“Mattis was furious,” said the source. “It made him suspicious of the transition team, and things devolved from there.”

Service secretaries represent potential alternate power centers inside the Defense Department, and Mattis as defense secretary has an interest in having secretaries who are loyal to him and don’t have independent relationships with the White House.

<..snip..>

http://www.redstate.com/streiff/2017/01/07/tonights-bout-mad-dog-mattis-versus-trump-transition-team/

[libertybele]

The Transition Team is a bunch of dysfunctional alt-right loons. Trump is turning out to be a terrible executive.

Trump Transition Team:

The Trump transition team is led by Vice President-elect Mike Pence, who plans to remain governor of Indiana until his term ends on January 9, 2017. It originally had six vice-chairs, which was expanded on November 29, 2016 to thirteen vice-chairs: Ben Carson, Chris Christie (previously head of the transition from May 2016 through election day), Michael Flynn (incoming National Security Advisor), Newt Gingrich, Rudy Giuliani, Jeff Sessions (incoming Attorney General), with the addition of K. T. McFarland (incoming Deputy National Security Advisor), Gov. Mary Fallin, Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (previously on the executive committee), Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Rep. Tom Reed, and outgoing Rep. Cynthia Lummis.

The transition team also has an Executive Committee which includes:

    Steve Bannon, Trump campaign CEO; named Counselor to the President on November 13
    Rep. Lou Barletta
    Rep. Marsha Blackburn (moved to vice-chair)
    Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi
    Rep. Chris Collins
    Rep. Tom Marino
    Rebekah Mercer – director of the Mercer Family Foundation and daughter of major Trump (and Cruz) donor Robert Mercer.
    Steven Mnuchin — former partner at Goldman Sachs, incoming Secretary of the Treasury
    Rep. Devin Nunes
    Reince Priebus — Republican National Committee chairman; named incoming White House Chief of Staff on November 13
    Anthony Scaramucci — Hedge-fund manager and founder of investment firm SkyBridge Capital, formerly at Goldman Sachs
    Peter Thiel – Co-founder of PayPal, now a venture capitalist involved in several groups including Clarium Capital and Founders Fund.
    Donald Trump Jr.
    Eric Trump
    Ivanka Trump
    Jared Kushner, businessman; husband of Ivanka Trump

Additional executive committee members since November 29, 2016:

    Rep. Sean Duffy
    Rep. Trey Gowdy
    Rep. Dennis Ross
    Pastor Darrell Scott
    Kiron Skinner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidential_transition_of_Donald_Trump