Pompeo: The War-Time Consigliere
Anyone who cares about protecting America’s interests at home and abroad should be grateful Mike Pompeo is now Secretary of State. Moderate Democrats did not line up against this good and noble statesman, and all Americans should applaud our rookie president for replacing business titan Tillerson with national security titan Pompeo. Trump took a page from the Corleone playbook and selected a war-time consigliere. Uncertain times mandated such a change.
Anti-Trump Democrats, such as Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), showed their unpatriotic colors by putting our national safety at risk to obstruct a Republican president. Oddly, Menendez faulted Pompeo for keeping a secret: “Even in my private conversations with him, he didn’t tell me about his visit to North Korea.” No secretary of state has visited North Korea since Madeleine Albright eighteen years ago: why would Pompeo risk peace on earth so Menendez could feel in the loop? After the blabber-mouthed Obamanauts, it is good to see a CIA leader whose lips are sealed.
In a world with one aspiring nuclear power on the Korean peninsula and another in the middle east, a clear-headed senator should prioritize de-nuclearization of North Korea and Iran. Out-party politicians should help America’s commander in chief promote Mike Pompeo, who has the experience, expertise, and the president’s trust. The North Korean missile threat faced by President Trump dwarfs the Cuban missile threat resolved by President Kennedy, who (by the way) was surrounded by his team.
I initially supported Rex Tillerson as secretary of state because he was an even-keeled CEO with experience running a huge bureaucracy. Trump tapped Tillerson because America needed Tillerson’s Russian relationships and know-how. Remember, Trump entered office believing Russia could help America defeat ISIL and solve the Iran nuclear threat. Unfortunately, Russia proved to still be an enemy of the USA, and America's primary global threats were beyond Tillerson’s skill set. America was closer to the brink of war than president-elect Trump really knew. After sending rockets into Russian puppet-state Syria – and fighting charges of a Putin bromance – Trump finally realized Tillerson was not the man for all seasons. Furthermore, if Tillerson did call Trump a "moron" behind his back, he cannot be on Team USA at crunch time – and this is crunch time.
Democrats should give Trump a little credit for on-the-job learning because he obviously realized America's safety required more breadth and depth of knowledge on his national security team. Trump trusts defense secretary Mattis to lead America’s armed forces against the visible threats of ISIL and North Korea, and he trusts Pompeo to lead America’s state department against the invisible threats of cyber-terrorism and clandestine meddling by China and Russia. After 24 years of Clinton-Bush-Obama fumbling our nation's safety, Pompeo and Mattis have inherited a scary world.
Pompeo is a veteran, and graduated at the top of his West Point class. He even has a graduate degree from Harvard, yet never lost his midwestern oh-gosh demeanor. He was widely liked and respected in the House as a congressman from Kansas, especially for his grasp of national security issues. Just as Churchill was born and bred to take on fascists, Pompeo was born and bred to take on nuclear nut jobs. By all appearances, this is his time. Clear-headed Democrats should be grateful Pompeo wanted the job, because our nation's safety is no partisan matter.
Chances are North Korea has a trap planned for President Trump. He hopes to avoid the mistakes made by three previous American presidents and secretaries of state, who refused to employ brinksmanship with North Korea. The danger right now is the president over-desires a deal for political purposes; therefore, it is imperative he trusts a secretary of state with the skill – and the will – to keep American interests front and center. Mike Pompeo knows how to play this kind of hardball because he has a warrior's heart and a statesman's head.
In closing, I am proud of moderate senate Democrats, such as Joe Donnelly, Joe Manchin, and Heidi Heitcamp, who put their country before their party and voted to approve Pompeo. I also applaud Chris Coons (D-DE), whose bipartisan gesture allowed the Pompeo nomination to get out of committee – even though he would not support Pompeo when the nomination hit the senate floor. These Democrats are made of the right stuff and possess crystal clear vision: one cannot allow animosity toward Trump to diminish a healthy fear of Kim Jong-un.