Why is it only in the twilight of this administration that we are seeing highly sensible appointments -- and a new commitment to healthy "deal-making"? It is regrettable that someone of [David] Gordon's [National Intelligence Council Vice Chairman] intellectual capacity and stature now has just a year and half to try and do something constructive in his new role. The reality is that America's place in the world seems to be slipping -- perhaps from a globally hegemonic, ordering role to something like another better-than-average great power -- and most of George W. Bush's political capital has been spent, often on low-return battles like the recent Wolfowitz struggle.
Others on this new team, according to Clemens, are Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Deputy Secretary John Negroponte, Under Secretary of State R. Nicholas Burns, Legal Adviser John Bellinger, Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, Gordon England, Deputy Secretary of Defense, Mike McConnell and Michael Hayden at the Directorate of National Intelligence.
The danger?
There are a lot of new good people -- working together finally -- in this administration. But Vice President Cheney, and his national security spearcarriers -- David Addington, John Hannah, and David Wurmser -- will be out there to sabotage and oppose him at every turn. These rivals can't be seduced to support David Gordon's logic.
The hope?
They need to be out run, embarrassed, exhausted, pushed out of the room, or crushed.
That's how one wins against Cheney's followers. David Gordon's appointment is a sign that smart realists are ascendant.
As the Hopi Native-American adage goes, When hope is gone, life is over.
We can only hope...
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