The Pentagon Team

I think there’s a lot of logic to keeping Bob Gates on as Secretary of Defense. But I also thought Chris Bowers’ concerns about this are reasonable:

The most important appointment decision Obama will make during the transition, bar none, is who becomes, or remains, Secretary of Defense. As I have noted in the past, the Department of Defense oversees the expenditure of 52% of all discretionary spending, rendering it literally impossible for any other cabinet Secretary to oversee as much federal money. Further, keeping Gates on would only worsen Democratic image problems on national security, as he would be the second consecutive non-Democratic Secretary of Defense nominated by a Democratic President. The message would be clear: even Democrats agree that Democrats can’t run the military. [...]

Secretary of Defense is the big enchilada. Arguably, due to the vast percentage of federal spending it receives, it is more important than all other cabinet secretaries combined. The President may be Commander in Chief, but it is the Secretary of Defense who is decides how most federal revenue is spent. We need change in the Department of Defense, and keeping Gates along with his entire team of advisors and assistants doesn’t fit the bill.

The first step to meeting these concerns is to observe that it’s not actually the case that the Secretary of Defense just “decides” how the Pentagon’s giant budget is spent. It’s largely determined by congress, and budget requests have input from OMB and of course the president needs to agree. But this isn’t a crazy set of concerns. I think you meet the concerns two ways. One has to do with staffing the other civilian slots at the Defense Department.

Thus far, this seems to be going right. Gates’ Deputy will be Richard Danzig according to Mike Allen. Danzig was Secretary of the Navy under Bill Clinton and is an o.g. Obama supporter, a totally solid guy. And Gates’ most pernicious subordinate, Cheney aide Eric Edelman, is on his way out. Spencer Ackerman reports that his successor as Undersecretary of Defense for Policy (the number three job, used to be Doug Feith) will be Michèle Flournoy, who simultaneously held two subordinate positions in the Policy undersecretariat under Clinton, and cofounded CNAS. She’s the right woman for the job.

Of course personnel is personnel, and then there’s policy. As I said, I think there’s a huge opportunity to coopt Republican realists by enlisting Gates in an Obama administration. But that’s based on the presumption that a Gates-led Pentagon will be assisting in the pursuit of sound policies — withdrawal from Iraq, a tighter focus on al-Qaeda, a new diplomatic approach in the broader Middle East, and sensible budget priorities — rather than just being a Cohenesque abdication of responsibility. Budget issues will be, as Bowers highlighted, especially important. I’ve been distressed for months now about reports of a looming defense budget ambush and it’s crucially important that Gates be part of the pusback rather than part of the problem.