1/22/2021
The 21 January story in the Washington Post caught my eye. I immediately thought “Another dumb decision by some bureaucrat.” My second thought was, “That person’s head should roll.”
I worked for the Navy for 32 years. One to the Navy traditions is that managers must be held responsible for bad decisions. It seemed like a simple thing to find the highest level person that decided to move the National Guard to a parking garage.and take action after a review of the situation. It seems like something that could be quick and simple.
When it dawned on me that in the United States of America in 2021 nothing is simple. It’s all political.
For starters this story was reported by the Washington Post and on CNN. For four years Trump has been brainwashing people to believe that everything in the Washington Post is “fake news” and cannot be believed. That means 30% of the people in the country will not believe the story. This leaves only the Democrats, the Independents, and Mitt Romney to believe the story.
I must admit I was wrong once more. Republican Representative Kevin McCarthy, rested after trying to overturn the last election, decided that it was time to blame the Democrats since they had been in power for a day. Ok, let me cut him some slack – they have been in power for a day and a half.
Using our government’s official form of communications, Twitter, Mr. McCarfthy blamed Democrat Nancy Pelosi for ordering the National Guard into the parking garage.
I have never thought of Mr. McCarthy is a mental giant but surely he knows that the Secretary of Defense does not report to the Speaker of the House and the National Guard is in the Department of Defense’s org chart.
To be perfectly fair to Mr. McCarthy, I am not sure Speaker Pelosi knows that the Secretary of Defense does not report to her. After all she did call the Joint Chief of Staff to express her concerns about Donald What’s His Name having the nuclear codes. Fortunately, What’s His Name no longer has a football and only carries golf balls these days.
Hell – after listening to many members of the House of Representatives speak, I feel fairly confident that fewer than 10% of them know the Secretary of Defence does not report to the Speaker of the House. Let me make one correction. Since more women joined Congress after the last election, let me say now 15% of the Representatives know that the Department of Defense does not report to the Speaker.
Since some of you might feel I am being a little hard on McCathy and Pelosi, I would like to conclude by saying that Senator Chuck Schumer and Senator Mitch McConnell have outlived their useful service life and should be put out to pasture with Pelosi and McCarthy. It’s time for them all to develop an exit strategy if one of them knows what an exit plan is.
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