Hillary’s Big Tent
Please subscribeRecently the Washington Post published a list of national security and foreign policy advisers to the Clinton campaign. Buried near the bottom is this entry:
Michael O’Hanlon, Brookings senior fellow and former Congressional Budget Office defense and foreign policy analyst, supporter
What’s intriguing is that he is not listed as “foreign policy adviser” as are many others on the list; nor is he even listed as “an informal advisor.” Just “supporter.” I guess that’s because you can’t say “turd in the punchbowl” in the newspaper, can you?
Of course I mean that in a nice way.
Glenn Greenwald:
[O'Hanlon is] among the biggest cheerleaders for the war, [and] repeatedly praised the Pentagon’s strategy in Iraq and continuously assured Americans things were going well. They are among the primary authors and principal deceivers responsible for this disaster.
He (O’Hanlon) also co-signed the infamous letter from Project for the New American Century (along with, hmmm…let’s pick someone at random… William Kristol).
Predictably, this has raised all sorts of hackles around Lefty Blogville.
When I see these folks [O'Hanlon, Mark Penn, Terry McAuliffe, et. al.] on Hillary’s team, it makes me cringe. I do not want these people to have direct influence on our next president.
Neither do I. But when I read the rest of the names on the list (presumably released by the Clinton campaign), I wonder how much influence O’Hanlon might have:
Here’s the partial list, in alpha order:
- Madeleine K. Albright
- Samuel R. Berger
- Gen. Wesley K. Clark
- Leslie H. Gelb
- Richard C. Holbrooke
- Martin S. Indyk
- Joseph Sestak
- Strobe Talbott
- Togo D. West
- Joe Wilson
Not a bad bunch to have available in your Rolodex.
The real question is: when they talk, will she listen? As of right now, we can’t really say, can we?
RSS
Nope. Hillary is a pretty big question mark. The best we can say is that she’s a centrist (in the old-school liberal-conservative sense), a pro-establishment corporatist and is pulled to at least appear hawkish and sympathetic to the neocon/zionist view, at least until she gets elected.
I will be skeptical and far from thrilled with a Clinton/Obama (another big question mark) ticket but at least, unlike the current regime and all of the GOP candidates, the next administration won’t be a bunch of batshit crazy traitors (even if a few are still lying around).
Albright, Aspen Group, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) , check.
Clark, CSIS, check.
Leslie H. Gelb, CFR, Brookings, check.
Richard C. Holbrooke, AIG (A company bigger than Exxon), Coke and AOL, CFR, check.
Martin S. Indyk, Aspen, Brookings, check.
Strobe Talbott (Bubba’s college roommate), Aspen, Brookings President, CFR, check.
Michael O’Hanlon, Senior Brookings Fellow, CFR
Now, check out Aspen’s members, like Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, and the interesting folks at CFR like Powell and Armitage.
Any real conspiracy theorist could cross-reference Aspen and CFR with AIG, concentrating on ties to The Lovell Group, Council for Excellence in Government, and the Partnership for Public Service.
The real fun is spotting the interlocking directorships and cross members of these elite organizations that run our world for us, so we don’t have to.
That would be one very interesting rolodex indeed. If you like the six-degrees of Kevin Bacon game, using this rolodex you can get from Hillary to Cheney in only one or two moves whichever person you start with.
Well the .0001% ruling elite is a pretty small club, after all. I’m sure they all fit neatly in one furiously spinning platinum rolodex.
you can get from Hillary to Cheney in only one or two moves whichever person you start with.
Once you get that high up in the DC food chain, it would be a game to see if you could get to anyone with MORE than 2 moves.