(CNN) — On December 19, 1985, Secretary of State George Shultz rocked the Reagan administration by publicly threatening to resign . The matter was not over policy, but principle. Shultz was taking a stand against Reagan's plan to expand the use of polygraph tests to as many as 180,000 government employees — including 4,500 from the State Department — in an effort to crack down on leaks. Just one day after Shultz took a stand, Reagan backed down.
Shultz represents the gold standard for a secretary of state defending his department. It's hard to see current Secretary of State Mike Pompeo taking a page from Shultz's playbook. It appears that if there's anything Pompeo learned from his predecessor Rex Tillerson, it's not to oppose President Donald Trump or make him unhappy.
We have worked for a half dozen secretaries of state in both Republican and Democratic administrations and rarely if ever have we encountered one more ill-suited for the job. Pompeo, who seems to be motivated by his own political ambitions and his desire to keep his job, has produced little of real consequence to advance the nation's interest. If he continues on his current trajectory, Pompeo may end up being remembered as the worst secretary of state in modern times.
To be fair, Pompeo works for a mercurial and undisciplined President who trusts and empowers no one, interferes in foreign policy when his vanity and mood swings move him, and sees everything through the lens of his own personal and political needs. It may well be that no secretary of state can navigate these turbulent waters.
After John Bolton was ousted as national security adviser, Pompeo became the most influential foreign policy voice in Washington after Trump. And yet it appears Pompeo is either unwilling or incapable of using that influence to advise the President. There is no speaking truth to power here. Pompeo seems unwilling to apply any brakes on Trump's impulses and in fact seems willing to keep one foot on the accelerator — particularly when it comes to defending Trump's trade war with China and defending Saudi Arabia
DrSkittles24 on October 5th, 2019 at 23:39 UTC »
Everything about this administration is the worst in modern times
brownck on October 5th, 2019 at 23:21 UTC »
He’s wasting state department resources on a debunked conspiracy theory to stroke the ego of the dumbass in chief and he’s enabling his effort to solicit foreign interference in 2020.
deChoochifer on October 5th, 2019 at 23:14 UTC »
Cool. So we have a bunch of grown men, tip-toeing around government, letting some bloated treasonous fuck do whatever he wants because they are afraid of his toilet-time-Twitter-tantrums?
Fucking cowards. These republican shills have zero backbone.