I saw a snippet from this confirmation news briefing yesterday ~ Ashton Carter seemed very awkward in his comments ~ maybe it was the lights and massive attention focused on him ~ we'll see ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Obama taps Ash Carter for Pentagon
12/05/14 10:58 AM
By Steve Benen

Last week, President Obama surprised much of the political world, asking for Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s resignation. This morning, Obama surprised no one, choosing Ash Carter has Hagel’s successor.


As we talked about briefly the other day, Carter is a real policy wonk with a fascinating background. For example, he’s a Rhodes Scholar with degrees in theoretical physics and medieval history, along with an expertise in nuclear policy.

That said, Carter would hardly arrive at the Pentagon as a rookie. He was Under Secretary of Defense for more than two years in Obama’s first term, followed by a stint at Deputy Secretary of Defense for two more years, during which time he managed the Pentagon’s day-to-day operations.

If the White House hoped to avoid a bruising confirmation fight, Carter is arguably the smartest – and safest – or all possible choices. He’s already been through the Senate confirmation process twice, and was approved with unanimous support in both cases. Incoming Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) has sung Carter’s praises, describing him as “a hard-working, honest, and committed public servant.”

Barring some shocking revelation, Carter seems very likely to earn Senate support early next year.

That said, as the process unfolds, there will be one specific thing I’ll be eager to hear more about: the time Carter called for a preemptive strike on North Korea.

To be sure, Carter has been a prolific observer. According to a fact-sheet distributed by the White House, he’s authored or co-authored 11 books and more than 100 articles on physics, technology, national security, and management.

But there’s one piece in particular that raised eyebrows. In 2006, Carter and former Defense Secretary William Perry wrote this Washington Post op-ed on North Korea’s nuclear program. It read in part:


Now, to provide a little context to this, for much of the Bush/Cheney era, North Korea was largely seen as a national security afterthought. Carter, who’s invested much of his career in nuclear policy, was mortified as Kim Jong-il moved forward with his nuclear-weapons program – up to and including the test of a long-range missile – which generated very little interest from the Republican administration in the U.S., which was focused on its two concurrent wars in the Middle East, neither of which was going well at the time.

So, Carter tried to get the Bush White House’s attention.

Nearly a decade later, the op-ed doesn’t hold up especially well. As Max Fisher noted this morning, a preemptive strike wasn’t necessary given the feeble nature of North Korea’s long-range capabilities, and if the U.S. had been as aggressive as Carter recommended, such moves likely would have made the security threat worse, not better.

To be sure, I’m not suggesting that one op-ed should or will derail Carter’s nomination. On the contrary, I suspect senators won’t care that much at all (some Republicans might even like him more as a result of the 2006 piece).

But when hearings get underway, it seems like the sort of argument Carter should probably address in more detail. It’s something to keep an eye on.

http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/obama-taps-ash-carter-pentagon#break

"Barring some shocking revelation, Carter seems very likely to earn Senate support early next year."

I'll bet he has something hiding in the closet. They all do.

All he has to do is say he likes bombing the crap out of brown people...