Continuity of Empire

WASHINGTON -- With two wars raging and an election approaching, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has sent senior civilians at the Pentagon a clear message: Be ready to stick around into a new administration to ensure a smooth hand-over in a time of war.

But increasingly, the campaigns of Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain have considered sending a similar message to Gates.

According to aides and allies close to both candidates, the idea of keeping Gates at the helm of the Pentagon under the next president has begun to gain support from national security advisors in both campaigns.

"My personal position is Gates is a very good secretary of Defense and would be an even better one in an Obama administration," said Richard Danzig, a top Obama national security advisor and a former Navy secretary...

This is, how do you say, a very bad idea.

Speaking of bad ideas, Arthur Silber has uncovered the source of quite a few of them in the rapidly morphing DINOcratic campaign for Preznit.

* Secretary of State Madeleine Albright * Senator David Boren, former Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence * Secretary of State Warren Christopher * Greg Craig, former director of the State Department Office of Policy Planning * Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig * Representative Lee Hamilton, former Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee * Deputy Attorney General Eric Holder * Dr. Tony Lake, former National Security Advisor * Senator Sam Nunn, former Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. * Secretary of Defense William Perry * Dr. Susan Rice, former Assistant Secretary of State * Representative Tim Roemer, 9/11 Commissioner * Jim Steinberg, former Deputy National Security Advisor

Whazzat? Warren Christopher??? Madeline Albright???

Exactly how is this any different than HHHillary would've been?

Say it ain't so...

The source, no doubt, of the decision to approve of the telcom immunity Obama approved of today. Just like Mc$ame. Oh, excuse me, correction: Obama wasn't happy about it.



[tip o'teh tinfoil to Howie Klein]

Obama seems to be of the opinion they won't be listening in to him, unless, of course, you know they really want to...