Is this the best that the president of the United States can do?

He has hired U.S. ambassador to Germany, a fellow named Richard Grenell, to take charge of the nation’s intelligence network. Have I mentioned that Grenell has zero experience at intelligence-gathering at any level and that he will be named “acting” director of national intelligence? Well, I just did.

This is a monumentally stupid appointment.

Grenell wouldn’t face Senate confirmation were he to remain on “acting” status. He reportedly has said that Donald Trump will select a permanent DNI soon. I am not holding my breath in anticipation of that appointment coming.

The preposterous nature of this appointment is made clear by Trump’s insistence that they’re pounding down the door of the White House, that he seemingly has to fight off the hordes of qualified applicants seeking to work in his administration. That he would make such an idiotic assertion is laughable in the extreme.

Grenell has no business running the nation’s vast intelligence network. That is a job that requires skill and knowledge. It requires a keen understanding of the crises that confront our agencies at every turn. It demands that the DNI be able to give unvarnished assessments of national security threats to the Big Man in the Oval Office … and it demands that the president be willing to accept what the DNI tells him!

Does any of that sound like the manner in which the current president operates? Of course not!