June 5th 2009
Another Obama Nominee Bites The Dust
President Obama’s classification of aggressive interrogation techniques as torture and his wholesale rejection of them have come home to roost: Not with an act of domestic terror, thank God, but with the demise of yet another Obama nomanee:
Philip Mudd, Obama’s pick for undersecretary of intelligence and analysis at Homeland Security, withdrew his name from consideration today because as deputy director of the Office of Terrorism Analysis at the CIA, he had direct knowledge of the CIA’s harsh interrogation program. No, there’s no evidence he ever turned the volume up or the thermostat down; association is enough when it comes to these programs.
Unless, of course, you’re Nancy Pelosi.
Mudd and his handlers in the admin realized that were his nomination to go forward, it would force the Dems in the Senate to rule on whether mere knowledge of the procedures alone was damning – a no win proposion for them. Deciding it was better to let that question lie unanswered, Mudd was shown the door.
This situation was raised once before, with John Brennan, who was to become CIA director. Obama solved that little problem by making Brennan a czar of sorts, working in the White House on security issues in a position that needed no confirmation.
Mudd would have headed the department that issued the highly controversial report on terror threats from the right wing. Too bad he’s gone – that looks like a department that could use some leadership.
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