Obama dismisses Bush Pentagon appointees

[CTuttle]

Source: TheHill.com

Despite keeping Defense Secretary Robert Gates in the Pentagon, President-elect Obama’s transition team informed 90 Bush appointees their services will not be needed after Inauguration Day.

Scott Gration, a senior official on Obama’s transition team, called and emailed several of President Bush’s Pentagon appointees about 10 days ago to inform them they were being dismissed.

Those calls and emails were followed up by an email from Jim O'Beirne, the special assistant to the secretary of defense for White House liaisons, who expressed exasperation that Gration informed the employees directly instead of letting O'Beirne's office know first.<...>

In the email, O'Beirne tried to assure the soon-to-be displaced employees that the decisions were based on "policy change in the Obama administration" and not based on performance.

However, he said, if employees "harbor residual doubts" then they can "content yourself with the likelihood that it was your outstanding performance as a Bush appointee that drew the opposition's attention to you."

"In that regard, you may take justifiable satisfaction that you were among the first to be chosen," O'Beirne wrote.

Read more: http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-dismisses-bus...

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Anybody else appalled at the blatant partisanship of O'Beirne? I'm only pissed that the cuts weren't deeper... Of the 250 odd Political Appointee slots at DoD only 90 are cut...? Well, it is a start...

[Idealism]

1. But I thought that wasn't the Change we can believe in?

Some people even on this forum want to impeach the man before he even gets into office.

[tyne]

2. Appears as though

O'Beirne needs an e-mail. Get rid of all the thinned skinned paranoia Bush types.

[CTuttle]

4. Every last one of them...

As <a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/12/31/1360/9719/474/... ">Billmon</a> at the Orange place notes...

<blockquote>O’Beirne’s name should ring a bell among students of the Iraq War fiasco. Husband of National Review columnist and all-around harpie Kate O'Beirne, he was a minor but highly instrumental player in the cabal of neoconservative bureaucrats who helped turn the late, unlamented Coalition Provisional Authority into what I liked to call the RNC branch office on the Tigris.</blockquote>

The damage he has wrought is immeasurable...!

[tblue37]

11. Use square brackets, not angle brackets

for HTML tags here on DU.

[CTuttle]

13. Mahalo, I'm still a young pup...!

Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!

[tblue37]

15. Welcome to DU. I could see by your post count that you are a newbie,

so I thought I would let you know why your HTML tags weren't working right. I was rushing, though, so I forgot to add a proper welcome.

Heh: My subject line sounds like a line from "The Streets of Laredo": "I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy. . . ."

[CTuttle]

Wow, I'm honored that the story is receiving top billing...! ;-)

[PearliePoo2]

3. The entire W administration is going to need a gigantic dose

of "industrial strength " rodent pest control.
Root out these burrowing rats.
Suck it up you bastards.

[Joe Chi Minh]

5. Love the dry humour. "Outstanding performance as a Bush appointee".

Heck. I've just realised O'Beirne works for Bush - and he would have said it in all seriousness.

[aquart]

28. Oh, dear. He was serious? Never occurred to me.

Well, I appreciate the irony even if he can't.

[matt819]

6. And for his e-mail, O'Beirne should be the next to go

His response to being outflanked and the substance of his message suggest to me that his should be the next resignation asked for. I think it was a certain president, hang on it minute, it'll come to me. . . oh, year, Bush43 - if you're not with us, you're against us. Hmmmm. . . words to live, and look for jobs, by.

[CTuttle]

8. ... and ask AGAG all about the job prospects...

[peacebird]

7. so tell me, is O'Beirne next on the list? seems he is a partisan p.o.s. who needs to go

[Robbien]

9. He is calling his soon to be boss "the opposition"?

"that drew the opposition's attention to you"

This guy is partisan through and through. AND he gets to keep his job where he will be thinking each and every day that he is working for "the opposition".

[CTuttle]

10. I worry that he's one of the burrowers...!

[robinlynne]

12. and OBierne goes home exactly when?

[jgraz]

24. Hopefully in about 6 to 10 years (with time off for good behavior)

[sendero]

14. It's going to take a tanker truck of..

.. Crony-Be-Gone to clean these useless patrons out of our government.

[geckosfeet]

16. Disgusted? I would expect no less from the bUsh ass kissing dogs.

[superconnected]

17. *smile* Thank you Barak! Change has come!

[whistle]

18. It reminds me of what followed when JFK issued National Security Action Memo #263

<snip>
October 11, 1963
To: Secretary of State

Secretary of Defense

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff


SUBJECT: South Vietnam

At a meeting on October 5, 1963, the President considered the recommendations contained in the report of Secretary McNamara and General Taylor on their mission to South Vietnam.

The President approved the military recommendations contained in Section I B (1-3) of the report, but directed that no formal announcement be made of the implementation of plans to withdraw 1,000 U.S. military personnel by the end of 1963.

After discussion of the remaining recommendations of the report, the President approved the instruction to Ambassador Lodge which is set forth in State Department telegram No. 534 to Saigon.

McGeorge Bundy


Copy furnished:

Director of Central Intelligence

Administrator, Agency for International Development

<MORE>

http://www.john-f-kennedy.net/nsam263.htm

[roamer65]

19. Gates should be getting the "boot" as well.

[Baby Snooks]

20. Meaningless...

Barack Obama can fire everyone in the Pentagon and it will be meaningless simply because of his decision to keep "Gates and Company."

What happened to Wesley Clark?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gates

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wesley_Clark

I think most of the people who voted for Barack Obama would rather have had someone with actual military experience than a former CIA director who served under George HW Bush.

I think most of the people who voted for Barack Obama would rather have had anyone but Robert Gates.

[CTuttle]

21. Count my veteran arse amongst that same crowd!

I was sorely disappointed with Obama's decision...!

[Idealism]

25. Clark won't be eligable for cabinet service until 2010

due to his recent military service. Gates is a short-term appointee, with Clark perhaps replacing him in two years

[cstanleytech]

30. Well maybe Obama is just

doing this for a little bit for 2 reasons, #1 to mollify the far right a little bit and #2 to bring someone else fully up to speed who can make a plan to get us out of this mess the Republicans and Bush got us in as fast and as safely as possible
I really hope its more of #2 though, I just dont like Gates

[Joey Liberal]

22. O'Beirne should have been canned first nt

[grassfed]

23. O'Beirne screened staff for loyalty to Bush over competence - WAPO

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/20...

Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq
Early U.S. Missteps in the Green Zone
By Rajiv Chandrasekaran
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, September 17, 2006; A01

Adapted from "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," by Rajiv Chandrasekaran, copyright Knopf 2006

After the fall of Saddam Hussein's government in April 2003, the opportunity to participate in the U.S.-led effort to reconstruct Iraq attracted all manner of Americans -- restless professionals, Arabic-speaking academics, development specialists and war-zone adventurers. But before they could go to Baghdad, they had to get past Jim O'Beirne's office in the Pentagon.

To pass muster with O'Beirne, a political appointee who screens prospective political appointees for Defense Department posts, applicants didn't need to be experts in the Middle East or in post-conflict reconstruction. What seemed most important was loyalty to the Bush administration. O'Beirne's staff posed blunt questions to some candidates about domestic politics: Did you vote for George W. Bush in 2000? Do you support the way the president is fighting the war on terror? Two people who sought jobs with the U.S. occupation authority said they were even asked their views on Roe v. Wade .

Many of those chosen by O'Beirne's office to work for the Coalition Provisional Authority, which ran Iraq's government from April 2003 to June 2004, lacked vital skills and experience. A 24-year-old who had never worked in finance -- but had applied for a White House job -- was sent to reopen Baghdad's stock exchange. The daughter of a prominent neoconservative commentator and a recent graduate from an evangelical university for home-schooled children were tapped to manage Iraq's $13 billion budget, even though they didn't have a background in accounting.

The decision to send the loyal and the willing instead of the best and the brightest is now regarded by many people involved in the 3 1/2 -year effort to stabilize and rebuild Iraq as one of the Bush administration's gravest errors. Many of those selected because of their political fidelity spent their time trying to impose a conservative agenda on the postwar occupation, which sidetracked more important reconstruction efforts and squandered goodwill among the Iraqi people, according to many people who participated in the reconstruction effort..............

[CTuttle]

26. Stuart Bowen's SIGIR report put's the CPA's ineptitude front and center...

Here's the source material...! (PDF)

[aquart]

27. LMAO. Did he really say that?

Bet it floats right over their irony-challenged heads.

Must pay more attention to O'Beirne. He's a hoot.

[Ken Burch]

29. Is this O'Beirne related to Kate O'Beirne, the antifeminist gasbag from the National Review?

n/t.

[CTuttle]

32. The very same android...!

[OnceUponTimeOnTheNet]

31. Welcome to DU. Kick and Rec.

Like your attitude.

[Name removed]

33. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[CTuttle]

34. Why didn't you post a journal...?

[Jazzgirl]

37. I am really getting sick of you posting this

rant over and over. Stop.

[librarycard]

35. This cut needs to go deeper, per O'Beirne's comment:

if employees "harbor residual doubts" then they can "content yourself with the likelihood that it was your outstanding performance as a Bush appointee that drew the opposition's attention to you."

"In that regard, you may take justifiable satisfaction that you were among the first to be chosen," O'Beirne wrote.

I work for the DoD, and I have bosses that were given raises and then did whatever Bush told them to do rather than considering what was best for the organization and hashing things out in open debate, as would have been done during a Clinton administration. "Outstanding performance" means taking the increase in pay, doing Bush's bidding of dismantling DoD departments so the budget money could be funneled to Iraq and Afghanistan war contractors. Some of these "parrots" (military and civilian) have already left without waiting for their letter. Allison Barber (propaganda chief of AFN/Stars & Stripes; coordinator the America Supports You program and of Bush's telecommunications set-up w/troops) resigned suddenly in Oct. Some are being shuffled between the Pacific and European commands in hopes of not being noticed, and they are close friends of Dick Cheney.

The culling needs to go deeper, particularly in the civilian sector of the DoD.

[CTuttle]

36. *oof* That doesn't bode well...!

Happy New Year from the Isles...!

[Joe Chi Minh]

38. On the face of it, it looks like presumption on O'Beirne's part, but on further reflection, I think

it shows a lack of understanding quite characteristic of the Neocon regime.

And since Obama's style has not been wantonly confrontational, i.e. for the sake of it (unlike the Republicans after Reagan's mob left the White House), but, rather, conciliatory, there must have been a very good reason for not informing O'Beirne first - assuming that would have been the normal protocol, courtesy, convention, etc. Is that so difficult to grasp?

[1776Forever]

39. CTuttle you were quoted on this website - pretty neat - thought you might like to see it...

http://www.daylife.com/words/Jim_O%3FBeirne

I was looking around to see more on this subject and found it.