Rebuttals to the “Chas Freeman is a realist” arguments
Over the last few weeks, an intense debate has developed in (mainly) punditocracy and blogosphere circles over the Obama administration’s choice of Chas Freeman as head of the NIC. This pick was atrocious for a number of reasons discussed here. Unsurprisingly, it was reported last week that the vetting process did not happen on Chas Freeman until after he had been offered and accepted the position and after it was announced publicly by Dennis C. Blair, the director of national intelligence. Blair had – according to his spokeswoman – not notified the Obama administration before he made the announcement of the selection of Freeman, which implies that the Obama administration would have had him more thoroughly vetted had they known of his selection – and we know how thorough the “vetting” process is for Obama admin picks, right?