administration

General Stanley McChrystal is being called on the White House carpet after a magazine article that was released this week quoted the general and his staff criticizing the Obama administration and its Afghanistan strategy. Via videoconference, McChrystal and Obama meet regularly to discuss Afghanistan. But after the Rolling Stone McChrystal profile broke, Obama demanded to see him this time in person. This isn’t the first time that in public the general has bad mouthed administration.

Resource for this article: General McChrystal publicly rips administration in Rolling Stone

McChrystal and his Obama contempt

In the article, General McChrystal and his staff reveal their contempt that they have with a number of officials carrying out the administration's Afghanistan war policy. According to Fox News, the article in this week's Rolling Stone quotes McChrystal making disparaging remarks about President Obama, mocking Vice President Joe Biden, feeling "betrayed" by U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan Karl Eikenberry, and also recalling how Obama looked "uncomfortable and intimidated" by a roomful of military officers. Someone who's an aide to McChrystal also calls National Security Adviser Jim Jones "a clown" who remains "stuck in 1985."

McChrystal Rolling Stone fallout

General McChrystal will attend a White House meeting with Biden and numerous of the other advisers whom McChrystal or his staff mocked within the article. The general has fired Duncan Boothby, the press aide who booked the McChrystal interview with Rolling Stone. The Washington Post reports that the timing of the Rolling Stone article by freelance journalist Michael Hastings could hardly be worse. With mostly just bad news coming out of McChrystal's Afghanistan war and increasing casualties, U.S. lawmakers and senior officials from allied countries are increasingly skeptical about the U.S. Afghanistan strategy. In the mean time, it was reported by the Associated Press that Afghan President Hamid Karzai strongly backs McChrystal in Afghanistan and hopes Obama doesn't choose to replace him.

General McChrystal does it again

General McChrystal's Afghanistan remarks have veered off-message before. Last year following the general's recommendations for the Afghanistan war were made public, he gave a speech in London openly criticizing administration officials, vice president Joe Biden in unique, who disagreed with him. On that occasion McChrystal was called on the carpet of Air Force One in Copenhagen, where the president had traveled to speak about Chicago's bid to host the Olympics. As outlined by the New York Times, General McChrystal has apologized for his remarks, saying the article was “a mistake reflecting poor judgment and should never have happened.”

Citations

Fox News

whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/06/22/obama-summons-his-top-general-in-afghanistan-back-to-white-house-after-disparaging-remarks/

The Washington Post

washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/22/AR2010062200813_2.html?sid=ST2010062200900

New York Times

nytimes.com/2010/06/23/world/asia/23mcchrystal.html?hp

Historically, it is not very frequent that we see an incumbent United States Senator get elected President of the United States.  It is even rarer that we see a U.S. Senator elected to both the Presidency and the Vice Presidency.

Bucking this historic tradition, our President-elect and Vice President-elect are incumbent United States Senators.  And now, Illinois Representative Rahm Emanuel has been offered the Chief of Staff position in the Obama administration.

This development that we are witnessing is largely unprecedented: a Presidential administration filled with incumbents from Congress.

So why is this a big deal? Well, we all know from elementary school history that the founding fathers built this great nation with three separate branches built into our Constitution: the executive, the legislative, and the judicial.  This level of participation by legislators in the executive branch will serve to eliminate the barriers between the executive office and the Congress – already low due to the Democrats’ increased control of both Houses – threatening the entire premise of separation of powers that has helped make this country so great.

Thus, this begs the question, "How many more Congressional officials will we see in the Obama administration?"  Regardless of the answer, in seeing an Obama administration composed of Democratic officials from the previous Congress, we are witnessing President-elect Obama's mantra of change get thrown out the window.

This entry has been cross-posted at NextGenGOP.com.