Another atrocious Obama appointment

Chuck Hagel for Department of Defense. Why? Jim Geraghty at National Review collects some opinions from various politicians and op-ed people, none of which strike me as fully explanatory (although Lindsey Graham’s comment that this is an “in your face” nomination is probably pretty close to the truth – which further underscores this president’s temperamental unfitness for the office he holds).

People at the agency where I work – in a state of near-despair from four years of working under Obama’s political appointees here – complain that there’s nowhere to run: word on the street is that practically all of Obama’s political appointees are (I am quoting) “assholes”. Perhaps the president’s main criterion for choosing agency personnel is as simple as this: he wants people around who resemble him.

DrewM at Ace of Spades has more. Drew draws attention to something about the nomination that also bothers me a great deal: quite aside from Hagel’s open hostility to Israel, what evidence is there that he even has the competence to manage such a huge federal agency? (answer: precious little evidence).