What's for Lunch Today? Apparently, Sh*t Sandwich

Quote:

---

What's for Lunch Today? Apparently, Sh*t Sandwiches.

Let's check in with the White House's national security team.

By Charles P. Pierce Feb 17, 2017

The administration has been installed for barely a month, and already its glossary of terms includes "alternative facts," "fake news," and, most recently, according to CNN, "shit sandwich." The Trump presidency* is nothing if not a gift from the language gods.

The last item was reportedly added by retired Vice Admiral Bob Harward while assessing the possibility of replacing the curiously un-indictable Michael Flynn as the president*'s National Security Adviser.

The official reason Harward gave concerned undisclosed "family and financial" issues to which Harward needed to tend. Perhaps his family didn't want him to eat the shit sandwich, or he found that running a shit sandwich franchise would not be financially rewarding.

Whatever the case, it's clear that, when a retired flag officer declines a job offer from the president* that would put him at the top of the national security apparatus, he's had a good, long look into Bedlam and has declined to sign on. From CNN:

A Republican official told CNN that Harward made it a condition of taking the job that he could form his own team. In the end, he didn't feel that was the case. And a senior Republican familiar with the process added that "a question of clarity regarding the lines of authority" was central in Harward's decision.

"I wouldn't call it a disagreement as much as questions that could not be resolved to his comfort level," the senior Republican said.

It seems that one of the large ingredients in the sandwich was the presence of a kind of alternative national security team headed by White House Senior Adviser, and prominent heir to House Harkonnen, Steve Bannon.

Foreign Policy reports that Harward wanted his own team in place, the way every National Security Adviser has done since the position was created, but that Bannon's inexplicable presence on the National Security Council made that a dealbreaker.


In one of the president's first executive orders after taking the oath of office on Jan. 20, Bannon — with no experience in government and an isolationist, anti-internationalist agenda — was granted a permanent seat on the National Security Council.

The order was an unprecedented move for a body that is supposed to steer clear of political considerations. In any other White House, Harward's request to have a say over who served on his staff would have been routine, former officials said. But Trump and his aides have been deeply reluctant to delegate power to outsiders who have no ties to the president's election campaign.

Harward, who led commandos in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq, enjoyed a stellar reputation among military officers, diplomats, and lawmakers from both parties. Other qualified candidates likely will think twice before accepting any offers for the post given the administration's insistence on imposing limits on the advisor's authority.

So the president loses Harward because he insists on the counsel of the guy who made propaganda movies about Sarah Palin? Gotcha.

The president*'s managed to alienate the intelligence community and he's on his way to alienating the military all the way up to flag rank.

No good comes of any of this. And every day, the country takes another bite.

---