{"id":556,"date":"2013-02-25T14:20:00","date_gmt":"2013-02-25T14:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/highplainsblogger.wordpress.com\/2013\/02\/25\/weak-secretary-of-defense"},"modified":"2013-02-25T14:20:00","modified_gmt":"2013-02-25T14:20:00","slug":"weak-secretary-of-defense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=556","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Weak\u2019 secretary of defense?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p>U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., predicts that Chuck Hagel will take office as defense secretary from a position of weakness.<\/p>\n<p>Hagel\u2019s been hammered hard by his former Senate colleagues, who\u2019ve challenged him on all manner of questions \u2013 some of them specious and outright defamatory. But he\u2019ll likely be confirmed this week in a full Senate vote.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/284555-coburn-weakened-hagel-will-make-poor-secretary-of-defense\" href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/284555-coburn-weakened-hagel-will-make-poor-secretary-of-defense\">http:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/284555-coburn-weakened-hagel-will-make-poor-secretary-of-defense<\/a><\/p>\n<p>But my concern about Coburn\u2019s prediction rests with whatever role Coburn and his Capitol Hill colleagues play in weakening the new defense secretary\u2019s position. Will they stand behind the Pentagon boss \u2013 a former Republican senator from Nebraska \u2013 or will they undermine him?<\/p>\n<p>Coburn\u2019s no dummy. He\u2019s a physician when he isn\u2019t making federal law. Thus, he\u2019s certainly aware that governing is a shared responsibility. The Constitution lays it out in establishing \u201cco-equal\u201d branches of government: the White House, Congress and the federal courts all have a hand in running this country.<\/p>\n<p>So, if Coburn\u2019s prediction of weakness at the Pentagon comes true, he should share some of the blame in hindering the Pentagon chief\u2019s ability to carry out national defense policy effectively.<\/p>\n<p>As I\u2019ve noted in this blog already, partisan concerns should stop \u201cat the water\u2019s edge.\u201d The defense secretary is in charge of the world\u2019s greatest military apparatus. <\/p>\n<p>But he doesn\u2019t operate in a vacuum. The president must have his back. So must the Congress.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., predicts that Chuck Hagel will take office as defense secretary from a position of weakness. Hagel\u2019s been hammered hard by his former Senate colleagues, who\u2019ve challenged him on all manner of questions \u2013 some of them specious and outright defamatory. But he\u2019ll likely be confirmed this week in a full &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=556\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">\u2018Weak\u2019 secretary of defense?<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}