Oops, sorry; forgot about Ed Meese.

He believes the department should really be focused on Transportation Security — ports, protection and security of chemical plants and refineries and all, and above all Cyber Security, particularly as it involves the workings of things like the grid, pipelines, financial cyber applications, and all.

Great comment, Sara; especially about Clarke’s views.
I remain convinced that the Bushies didn’t raise cybersecurity enough because they were utilizing it for both Abramoff-Rove fundraising (casino gambling, and offshore money) as well as to fund black ops. I’m also convinced that cyber security is involved in aspects of the mortgage meltdown, so IMHO your point really deserves more repetition and resonance.

Clarke’s comments about cyber security need a lot more emphasis IMHO, but then how that fits with more FBI investigators (including forensic accountants) is not at all clear to me.

Napolitano’s appt seems like very encouraging news.

I actually like the idea of Gates at DoD for perhaps a year. Gates is part of the old GHWBush clan — Scowcroft, Baker et.al., who opposed the invasion of Iraq, but with insufficient determined effort. What will be on his desk for the next year will be withdrawal from Iraq, and it is, in my mind, wise to give the elder bushies lots of hands-on responsibility for that. Typical Republican Rhetorical Political Plays in the past have included “Who Lost China” — part and parcel of McCarthyism, and what we still hear, the defunding of combat in Vietnam after 1972 — and I am much in favor of getting out of Iraq in a way that significantly includes preventing that political play as a result of getting out of Iraq. Obama can put in place any number of deputy secretaries under Gates, one of whom could easily move up to succeed him in a year or 18 months.

What I worry about at DoD is how deep seeded some Neo-Con persuasions may be, given who has been elevated in the non-political appointee civilian side of the Pentagon during the Bush years, and who has been promoted to the upper regions of the Officer Classes of the Services over the past 8 years. I suspect lots of “burrowing in” on the part of Cheney’s people, and change in these personnel streams will take work.

From a progressive perspective — I think we need to start making a case for a good look at outsourcing, both at DoD and at Homeland Security. In both departments we nearly have hollow divisions, they are little more than contractors managing (quite badly) various contracts for goods and services and even policy. It is not cheaper as was promised in the early days of outsourcing, and as we know given the Cunningham case and all — it is subject to fraud, and much abuse.

By the way, Richard Clarke has, as the last chapter in his recent book, an agenda for reforming the DHS — and yes, renaming it too. Perhaps Napolitano could take a good look at him as Deputy for the Department, and with her and Obama’s revisions, look at Clarke’s agenda for starting points. He believes the department should really be focused on Transportation Security — ports, protection and security of chemical plants and refineries and all, and above all Cyber Security, particularly as it involves the workings of things like the grid, pipelines, financial cyber applications, and all. He would peel off things such as FEMA, making them again independent agencies. Clarke has served as an advisor to Obama ever since he came to DC in 2005 — and I would assume from what Clarke has said in support of Obama, that his prescription is pretty much the direction in which Obama wants to go.

I would think Napolitano’s being a governor, as well as the arc of her career, makes HER more suited to DHS than Holder for DHS. See where I’m going here? The main controversy with the NSA is its spying on Americans, and that engages the jurisdiction of the DHS a lot more than that of the DoJ.

Meanwhile [I realize that I’m rationalizing here], Holder has a far better claim to being a creature of the pre-Bushie DoJ, and if part of the job of restoring the DoJ involves having in mind a model for what one is seeking to achieve, and assuming the President-Elect is generally satisfied that the pre-Bushie model was fine, then Holder has at least the same claim to cred as does Napolitano.

There is a long-term hiring model for law enforcement organizations that goes along the lines of either [a] run and rinse: hire inside then hire outside then repeat, or [2] run, run and rinse: hire inside hire inside hire outside then repeat. Based on that, the Bushie run of Ashcroft to Gonzales to Mukasey was more in the nature of French wash, spread the dirt, perfume over the stench. There are two approaches to dealing with removing the rot: [1] total flush, a massive and somewhat indiscriminate high colonic – for which one could make strong arguments as both justified and justifying the appointment of a strongly principled leader like Napolitano, or [2] surgery to cut out the cancer – for which one could make a strong argument for Holder being better suited, depending …

Depending that is on which approach the Decider Elect believes is most compelling. I would think that both these approaches have been considered by Obama, and given the access each of these principals have had to Obama, he’s listened to the best proponent of each. Indeed, for all we know they may have agreed to surgery.

Moreoer, depending what Obama does with the NSA and CIA appointments, I think we can agree that a Security Team with both Napolitano and Holder on it looks pretty formidable.

Second thought – I’m convinced we’re at the point that no one gives a friggin flying donut hole what if anything Napolitano does with her most private life – unless it involves men’s washrooms in public airports, young impressionable Congressional pages, hookers [regardless of price range, kink and gender impression preference], non-humans [excepting out Xenon], and going on Howard Stern.

For crying out loud- one of the top lions of the 110th Congress pride is an openly gay loud proud indomitable quick-thinking mercilessly funny four-eyed lisping Massachusetts jew – and the most reliably adult and fun political show on cable that’s not on Comedy Central is an openly gay proud indomitable quick-thinking charmingly funny Rhodes scholar lefty lesbian.

In this context, Napolitano has patiently and repeatedly responded that she is not lesbian, I don’t think there’s even the whisper of a suggestion of a rumor of her private inclinations being in the least predatory, exploitative, commercial, kinky, PETA-objectionable, or otherwise alien or bizarre.

So I have to conclude provisionally that the idea of a forthcoming Beltway rumor campaign is even less likely than the surfacing of the Michelle “whitey” tape.

Presumably, Obama’s support for Lieberman came at the expense of commitments (from Dem caucus members, not just the unreliable Joe), to support ”more important” initiatives and nominations, Napolitanos’ among them. Oddly, this may assure us that Joe will now hold hearings. The good news is that Napolitano can readily hold her own against Joe and his more openly Republican colleagues.

Napolitano’s work at DHS could take a decade. But she might also kick-start its reform and complete its integration, while looking for her successor. With national visibility, she could then return to take McCain’s senate seat from him in 2010. The prospect of Obama’s administration is that the possible and the good may coalesce.

Boumediene Wins Again!

My hope: that Janet Napolitano approaches the competent intelligence officials whom were ousted (and outed) during Bush’s reign of terror. Napolitano could rehire those people who know first hand the dangers of intelligence misused by politicians for base political ends. They could help Napolitano ferret out or counter the shenanigans by any domestic, politically tainted worker bees installed by the Bush team.

I’m with you on that. I also am against Gates staying at DOD because I want to see a similar program of bringing back senior military officers who have “retired” in disgust rather than carry out the Bush military policy. That would be much easier to accomplish with a new SecDef.

An effort by the New York Police Department to get broader latitude to eavesdrop on terrorism suspects has run into sharp resistance from the Justice Department in a bitter struggle that has left the police commissioner and the attorney general accusing each other of putting the public at risk.
…
disagreement, in which the Bush Justice Department has taken a more cautious approach than police officials, is something of an unexpected twist for an administration that has more often seemed willing to stretch legal boundaries to fight terrorism.

Apparently Kelly wanted to tap phones in public places to see what he could trawl. A virtuous Mukasey said, Nuh uh sisterbrother. We know about all this super duper secret stuff involving requests related to classified investigatiosn — we know about exchanges of letters between Kelly and Mukasey that have not been released, but which have been described to the NYT as making Mukasey look like he has suddenly remember the Constitution — we know about all this… how? Bc someone went chirping to the NYT about a non-story. Surveillance requests from earlier this year by Kelly and turned down. The story is? Umm, the ONLY story is taht “HEY GUYS, LOOK AT HOW MUKASEY ISN’T AS SLIMEY AS YOU MIGHT THINK!”

The Judy Miller Times has a new friend.

It is not about the committee leadership, or lack there of, it’s watching what he does with all the information at his disposal while holding the committee leadership position. Someone will now watch this activity.

Obama has a sense of humor.