30 January 2007

Confirmation


It is budget season. The big books are going up to the Hill and the staffers are sharpening their pencils and preparation for correcting the President's needs. There are new faces, and new agendas. Things are different up there, which causes extra anxiety. Parking has always been at a premium on the Hill, and with today's enhanced security, if you don't have a sedan to take you where you are going, forget about it. There really isn't even a place to put your topcoat when you get there.

With the budget justification comes the ritual of Confirmation for the latest crop of the President's men. General David Patraeus is headed for Iraq to be the new Proconsul next week, with a vote of 81-0. Dave said the situation was "dire" but not hopeless; which is why the Seante vote on the man can be unanimous, while simultaneouly passing a non-binding resolution to not send 21,000 troops with him.

No one said it made much sense, but that is the Process. General Casey, the man who has orchestrated our response to the situation, is returning under fire.

He was nominated to come back as the Army Chief of Staff, but there is grumbling from the Armed Services Committee, and of course Senator McCain. It is too bad. He is the guy who has been holding the bag for a lot of other mistakes, and the word I hear is that he is a stand-up guy and an inspirational leader who does not deserve the abuse.

“Fox” Fallon is up on the Hill today, and he will speak no evil, if he can. Or better put, he will speak just enough of it to make the Senators happy. He is the Admiral who is supposed to preside over the whole Middle East as the newest Combatant Commander. It caused quite a stir when the President nominated a sailor to take over supervision of the ground war, but there are things coming after Iraq, and if it turns out as badly as it could, we might have to operate from the sea.

So it makes a certain loopy sense, and the Iranians are supposed to take note.

“Fox” told the Senate Armed Services Committee in his written statement that the US miscalculated the ability of Iraqi forces to take their share of the burden, and underestimated the enemy's persistence.

He said it was more difficult than anticipated, which would have been a big surprise a year ago, and got him fired, rather than elevated. But that is the way things go in this town. It is all a question of what you hear, and what you clap your hands over your ears to avoid.

Fallon used to be concerned with China, and apparently did so well they are going to give him the Sunni insurgents and the Persians.

Fox will be one hearing room while John Negroponte, the first director of national intelligence, is over in front of the Foreign Relations panel to determine his suitability for what is a lateral move, at best, to become the Deputy to Condoleezza Rice at State.

The two hearings today are not expected to cause much of a fuss, though you never can tell.

That means VADM John “Mike” McConnell will have the whole day to study the thick binders of questions-and-answers proposed by the Ambassador Negroponte's staff to prepare him for the questions of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

There will be a lot of them, and predictably they will be about things that he never did, probably wouldn't do, and will certainly try to avoid in his new job, if confirmed.

You really can't win in these situations. You cannot speak your mind about how things ought to be changed and improved, since loyalty to the man who nominated you is first. Consequently, the nominee gets to be a punching-bag for every hobby horse that the Senators might have.

Word is that increased authority for the office is one of the hot topics, which of course he cannot ask for without appearing to be overly ambitious. The other is the Total Information Awareness Program, or TIA, which was a program that the government asked him to develop as a contractor.

It is a neat system of search-and-correlation engines that theoretically can bring together all the information in all the databases that are kept on us, phone calls, grocery bills, television watching habits, that sort of thing.

Used with the greatest effect, it could be the end of democracy as we know it, but the mortgage and credit companies have more important information and they don't even take very good care of it.

The government asked for it, and paid out tax dollars to have it done. Anyone could see who is responsible, if you looked.

So it is not the nominee's fault that it was done. He just did it the best way he could to provide a solution to an identified national security requirement. Accordingly, he will probably be confirmed with only a few grumbles.

These jobs have to be filled, after all, since there is a war on. It therefore is unlikely a Senator will put a hold on it.

It is not like these were nominations to the Federal Bench, after all.

Copyright 2007 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com

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