Booman Tribune ~ A Progressive Community

Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary

by BooMan
Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 10:21:00 AM EST

President Obama is at it again. He has tapped the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. John McHugh (R-NY), to be his Secretary of the Army. McHugh represents New York's 23rd District, which stretches from Lake Ontario in the West to the border of Vermont in the East. It's effectively a New England seat. It's unclear if the Republicans will be able to win a special election there to fill this vacancy. McHugh has been winning the district with over sixty-percent of the vote, but Obama took 50.33% of the vote in the November election.

If they cannot hold the 23rd District, the Republicans will have only ~~one~~ two members (Rep. Peter King, from Long Island and Rep. Chris Lee of Batavia) left in New York State. They currently have no House members from New England. They have lost seats in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. After Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) retires, Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins, Chris Lee, and Peter King could be the only federally-elected Republicans between Canada and the New Jersey border.

Predicting committee succession is tricky in the House, but Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-MD-Appalachia) is probably set up to replace McHugh as the ranking member on the Armed Services committee. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) could then take over the gavel of the Subcommittee on Air & Land Forces.

This move by Obama has to be driving the Republicans nuts.

Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

Re: Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary (4.00 / 3)

He's on a roll. For Republicans who want to exercise power, and understand that it will be a cold day in hell before they get it back in Congress, such offers will be hard to resist. He is decimating the northern Republican Party. Going the way of the Whigs, and for much the same reasons.

Knut

by Knut Wicksell (b_didnn@hotmail.ca) on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 11:25:44 AM EST

Re: Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary (4.00 / 2)

And once again, Obama shows he thinks lefties are all Denis Kucinich when it comes to the military.

by MNPundit on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 01:31:09 PM EST

Re: Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary (none / 1)

Yeah. Sorry, Boo'M, but this should be driving progressives nuts, not Republicans. I'd rather have one more relatively powerless Republican seat in the House, and one less Republican or Democratic hawk (Gates, Jones, Clinton, Holbrooke, Ross, et al) running Obama's national security and foreign policies. For all Obama's rhetoric about valuing diverse opinion, there seems to be very little ideological diversity in these positions.

by Geov Parrish on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 03:35:26 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary (none / 1)

As long as he keeps picking people who are qualified, then it's a great ploy.

If Cheney has laid a trap with the 'He has made us weaker and we are vulnerable' tour, this is Obama's answer. If there is another attack he has Republican's in place instead of progressives.

It sets Obama up for 2012, in that it will be harder for both the 'weak on security' and the 'Obama is no bipartisan' memes to stick.

And it weakens Republicans in the north.

It's a win, win, win.

As long as he picks qualified people who do what they are told and are the types that work hard to do a job well, there is no downside.

nalbar

by nalbar (nalbarsatgmaildotcom) on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 05:16:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary (none / 1)

You're forgetting Christopher Lee in NY-26.

by mystic liberal on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 10:31:44 AM EST

Re: Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary (none / 1)

damn. you're right. Must update.

by BooMan on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 10:34:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]

Re: Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary (none / 1)

Obama plays chess while the rest play checkers.

by RollaMO on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 12:12:26 PM EST

Stupid Question (none / 0)

Aren't there any qualified people in the Democratic party for these high-level positions?

Read the European view on European Tribune

by Fran on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 04:31:35 PM EST

Re: Stupid Question (none / 0)

Seriously. As I keep saying, I didn't cast any votes for "Bipartisan" when I went to the polls. I voted "Democratic" straight down the line.

I know Obama idolizes Lincoln and is undoubtedly trying to emulate the reconciliationist tack Lincoln took after defeating the Confederacy, but it might be worth considering what that got Lincoln. And no, I'm not doing what most Republican radicals do when they make reference to the Lincoln assassination -- hoping the same happens to Obama. I'm hoping it doesn't.

What Obama -- and the "moderate" Dems -- need to realize is that we spent most of the last sixteen years listening to increasingly eliminationist rhetoric from the Republican right. When they went down that road, they ceased to be merely the political opposition; they became an internal enemy and ceased to have any legitimacy in a democratic, pluralistic society.

I'm not saying we shouldn't engage the last remaining moderate Republicans where we can do so constructively, but we need to remember that the Republican right consists of people who were having elaborate decapitation fantasies about us during the early days of the war and who are still asking rhetorical questions about whether murdering gynecologists is really murder. Considering that their politicians were enthusiastic supporters of war crimes, congressional Republicans should spend more time being grateful that they haven't been the subject of mass arrests and less time being considered for cherry jobs in the executive branch.

And yes, Booman, I know I'm not going to get any Senate votes for that. ;)

by corvus on Tue Jun 2nd, 2009 at 09:48:44 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Obama Taps McHugh for Army Secretary | 9 comments (9 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)

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