Patterico's Pontifications

11/23/2016

Nikki Haley In, Ben Carson Willing

Filed under: General — Dana @ 10:40 am



[guest post by Dana]

In spite of throwing barbs and accusations at each other during the primaries, President-elect Donald Trump has selected governor of South Carolina and daughter of Indian immigrants Nikki Haley as U.N. ambassador.

Here is Trump’s statement:

Governor Haley has a proven track record of bringing people together regardless of background or party affiliation to move critical policies forward for the betterment of her state and our country. She is also a proven deal maker, and we look to be making plenty of deals. She will be a great leader representing us on the world stage.

Haley explains why she accepted the nomination:

I always expected to finish the remaining two years of my second term as governor. Not doing so is difficult because I love serving South Carolina more than anything. I was moved to accept this new assignment for two reasons. The first is a sense of duty. When the President believes you have a major contribution to make to the welfare of our nation, and to our nation’s standing in the world, that is a calling that is important to heed. The second is a satisfaction with all that we have achieved in our state in the last six years and the knowledge that we are on a very strong footing.

Haley will remain governor of South Carolina until confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Her detractors have pointed out that she agreed to remove the Confederate flag from the grounds of her state’s capitol, she is a favorite of the GOP establishment, and that she is soft on immigration (ironically then-candidate Trump made that accusation).

Also, in another move sure to “blunt criticism” that Trump’s selections have come from a pool of old white men, Dr. Ben Carson released a statement this morning saying that he would be willing to accept a position in the Trump administration:

Winning the presidential election was only the first step for those who love traditional America and do not wish to fundamentally change it. Now the hard work begins of restoring the values that made us great. We must bring back the compassion and the unity that empowers us and banish the divisiveness that weakens us. After serious discussions with the Trump transition team, I feel that I can make a significant contribution particularly to making our inner cities great for everyone. We have much work to do in strengthening every aspect of our nation and ensuring that both our physical infrastructure and our spiritual infrastructure is solid. An announcement is forthcoming about my role in helping to make America great again.

Word is that Dr. Carson is being looked at to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development. (On a side note, strolling through the post-election wasteland known as Twitter, I see that a number of people consider a black man being made the offer to head up HUD to be typically racist Because “Urban”. No mention that such an assumption is denigrating to Carson and bigoted in itself… ) And while it’s true that Carson has no experience running government, it’s hard to see just how he could screw up the agency any more than it already is.

–Dana

46 Responses to “Nikki Haley In, Ben Carson Willing”

  1. But are they the best people for the jobs?

    Dana (d17a61)

  2. As much as I would like to see a southern Dem governor “prevented”, Gov. McCrory could probably do a bang up at either HUD or Transportation.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  3. They’re definitely better than the people illary would have nominated.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  4. Could be Trump is removing a competitor or critic from the scene by sending her to the UN.

    Patricia (5fc097)

  5. Oops. I forgot to mention in the post that if the governorship opens up, things will look awfully good for big-time Trump supporter and South Carolina Lt. Gov, Henry McMaster.

    Dana (d17a61)

  6. Window dressing for the UN.
    But a brain salad surgeon at HUD?

    “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends…” – Karn Evil 9, ‘Brain Salad Surgery’ Emerson, Lake & Palmer, 1973

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  7. He was raised in Detroit and dined almost daily at Popeye’s in West Baltimore. Sheesh if not him then whom?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  8. #5 Dana,

    I have no doubt that Donald Trump really wants one of his supporters to become the Governor of South Carolina! (LOL)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  9. ….so he can fire up the cannon at Fort Sumter?

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  10. Ben Carson evidently overruled his business manager, Armstrong Williams (who stands to lose a lot oof money) and/or he finds HUD more interesting or important than HHS (Health and Human Services) or Education or Veterans Affairs.

    Trump is reportedly also looking for a position for Rudolph Giuliani, maybe Director of National Intelligence (that’s what it said in the paper!)

    Carson may feel that without him around, maybe Trump won’t make an effort to really get rid of the pathologies of the inner cities, which he started talking about toward he end of the campaign. That he’ll just drop it, maybe.

    Sammy Finkelman (081278)

  11. Donald Trump also met with Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) a fromer supporter of Bernie Sanders, and it was reported that he was considering her for Ambassador to the United Nations. But what they talked about Monday (at the Trump Tower, so he did return from his golf course in New Jersey) was her contention that creating a safe zone, or a no-fly zone, so as to protect people in Syria would escalate the war in Syria. Turkish president Erdogan has a proposal for a safe zone but the problem with that is f you don’t want to challenge Russia, it needs Russian agreement. Now maybe Putin feels that is necessary to get the U.S. to co-operate in helping Assad. But they may not even actually let people escape safely.

    Sammy Finkelman (081278)

  12. David Petraeus waas briefly considered for Secretary of Defense. Trump’s favorite candidate seems to be General James Mattis, who is regarded as highly capable, and has a lot of support. He would need a waiver form the the requirement that a Secretary of Defense has to be at least seven yeasr removed from active duty to take the appointment. I don’t know how long that requirement goes back, but general George C. Marshall had to get such a waiver in 1950 – and that as after serving as Secretary of State from 1947 to 1949. There won’t be a problem actually in geeting such a waiver, which would have to be a law and means teh House also has to approve.

    The Zionist Organization of America, led by Morton Klein, opposes his nomination because they say he is hostile to Israel, in not appreciating the value of the alliance, as well as buying into some criticism of the settlements as making a 2-state soluion impossible – it’s impossible for other reasons – and because he thinks you have to get an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement to get – well, he seems to envision an open Israeli-Sunni Arab alliance. Trump also has indicated a belief that he could get a Israeli peace settlement and wants to put Jared Kushner in charge of obtaining it.

    Of course this gets things all backward. Arabs in other states are not hostile to Israel because there is no peace settlement – there is no peace settlement because Arabs are hostile to Israel. It is an independent variable. We have a situation where it is easier for a Muslim Arab to convert to Christianity than to say any accusation against Israel is unfounded.

    Sammy Finkelman (081278)

  13. I am willing to serve as Postmaster General.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  14. For veteran’s Affairs, I’d like to see a veteran who doesn’t take BS gladly. Martha McSally, perhaps.

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  15. If even Narciso is not considered as token (fill in the Cabinet post), Trump must really have it out for the Latins.

    Nooooo, not McSally – keep her there. The Astronaut/ideal Joe Biden of the future might take that seat in the special election.

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  16. Carson accepts HUD appointment.

    His first suggestion: conserve land from cemetery use by storing grain in pyramids and burying inner city dead in farm silos.

    DCSCA (797bc0)

  17. In Cook County, they were exuming indigent corpses at will a couple years back http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/daily-southtown/news/ct-sta-burr-oak-st-0212-20150211-story.html

    urbanleftbehind (5eecdb)

  18. Gabbard has a few odd positions for a liberal democrat — mostly deriving from the fact that she was raised a conservative Catholic by her conservative father who led the fight against same-sex marriage in Hawaii in the late 1990s. When she was first elected to the Hawaii House as a 21 year old, she was against gay rights, and against both same-sex marriage and civil unions. She’s now gone 180 on those in order to remain elected in Hawaii.

    But she could not be an effective spokesperson for a Trump administration in the UN. She has a different POV on many issues, most significantly global warming.

    But I think she came to Bannon’s attention because she’s been a 2nd Amendment defender, and she did not sign the letter from Congress demanding that Trump fire Bannon.

    She’s one-half Samoan, and a practicing Hindu.

    shipwreckedcrew (56b591)

  19. I guess it’s jut too small fry, but Romney fixing the VA would be the best service he could give this country.

    Donald (093f40)

  20. But she could not be an effective spokesperson for a Trump administration in the UN. She has a different POV on many issues, most significantly global warming.

    This assumes that Trump’s previously stated views are his current views. However, his comments to the NYT yesterday cast doubt upon them. Which would not be surprising.

    Dana (d17a61)

  21. Or maybe that was just fake news.

    Dana (d17a61)

  22. You should read the entire transcript, or at least the daily callers omissions

    narciso (d1f714)

  23. Trump is a reform politician.

    Heinlein (aka Lazurus Long) on the subject:

    “–I was even a reform politician once. . but only once: Reform politicians not only tend to be dishhonest but stupidly dishonest–whereas the business politician is honest.”

    “Business politicians are honest?”

    “Use your head, Ira. I don’t mean that a business politician won’t steal; stealing is his business. But all politicians are non-productive. The only commodity any politician has to offer is jawbone. His personal integrity–meaning, if he gives his word, can you rely upon it?” A successful business politician knows this and guards his reputation for sticking by his own commitments–because he wants to stay in business–go on stealing, that is, not only this week, but next year, and years after that. So if he’s smart enough to be sucessful at this very exacting trade, he can have the morals of a snapping turtle, but he performs in such a way as not to jeopardize the only thing he has to sell, his reputation for keeping promises

    But a reform politician has no such lodestone. His devotion is to the welfare of all the people–an abstraction of very high order and therfore, capable of endless definitions. If indeed it can be meaningful terms. In consequence, your utterly sincere, and incorruptible reform politican is capable of breaking his word three times before breakfast–not from personal dishonesty, as he sincerely regrets the neccesity and will tell you so–but from unswerving devotion to his ideal.

    All it takes to get him to break his word is for somebody to get his ear and convince him that it is neseccarry for the greater good of all the peepul. He’ll geek.

    After he gets hardened to this , he’s capable of cheating at solitaire. Fortunately he never stays in the office long — except during the decay and fall of a culture.”

    from “Time Enough for Love”

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  24. (and Heinlein was once a reform politician, He ran for the CA state legislature as a Democrat on the Upton Sinclair platform.)

    Kevin M (25bbee)

  25. Dana (d17a61) — 11/23/2016 @ 1:51 pm–

    The Climategate article currently on Drudge has transcript of a great deal of the dialogue from the NYT meeting on this subject (with both he and Friedman and he and Sulzberger). Trump was certainly “outnumbered” in that room but I think it’s a bit streeeeetch for the media to suggest he has changed his position on global warming or the Paris agreement from that transcript. I hate most of the traditional media print outlets with a white hot passion by the way, so I cannot be considered an impartial observer to anything they write or propagandize. Look for yourselves and see what you think.

    http://www.climatedepot.com/2016/11/23/fake-news-update-media-falsely-spins-trumps-climate-comments-read-full-nyt-transcript/

    elissa (c1cac5)

  26. Dana–sorry–now that I am at my real computer I see that you linked the same article. But I am interested in people’s reactions to that interview at the NYT.

    elissa (c1cac5)

  27. If Petraeous is in the mix for anything it ought to be for the VA. Smart guy, cares for his troops, willing to try new things and probably needs to do a little pennance for screwing up bigly. VA’s bureaucracy is overdue for an awakening.

    crazy (d3b449)

  28. Perhaps my favorite line for its pure simplicity was, “I do have an open mind and we’ve had storms always, Arthur.”. This was Trump’s response to NYT’s Arthur Sulzberger’s challenge, “We saw what these storms are now doing, right? We’ve seen it personally. Straight up.” and Friedman’s supporting suck-up interruption, “but you have an open mind on this?”

    elissa (c1cac5)

  29. 16. Carson’s first action is to rename HUD to C.H.U.D. Just keepin’ it real.

    Colonel Haiku (603887)

  30. elissa, we may see strange bedfellows during the next few years.
    The MSM is always going to look to subvert President Trump. But so, too, will some of the right-of-center #NeverTrumpers.
    They’re going to want to find justifications for opposing him during the election.
    Look at the hysteria regarding all these alleged “broken campaign promises.”
    The man hasn’t even been sworn in yet, but some of our right-of-center friends have already compiled a binder full of reasons for impeachment.

    Not even whispering, “Jeff Sessions as AG” seems to be able to calm them down.

    There’s no “wait and see.”
    It’s just, “SEE!!!!” (LOL)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  31. only the daily caller, and climate depot seems to actually look at the transcript, odd that,

    narciso (d1f714)

  32. Greetings:

    Anyone is easier on the eyes and ears than Samantha Power.

    11B40 (6abb5c)

  33. The MSM is always going to look to subvert President Trump. But so, too, will some of the right-of-center #NeverTrumpers.

    They’re going to want to find justifications for opposing him during the election.

    I wish you understood: I don’t think there is any reason to purposely subvert President-elect Trump. He was elected, and he will be sworn in as our next president. I am more than willing to support and applaud every good thing he does, and call out every bad thing. Just like I would any other president.

    further, #NeverTrumpers don’t need to find justifications for having opposed him during the election season. He provided plenty of reasons why himself.

    Dana (d17a61)

  34. #32 11B40,

    Cass Sunstein must be hard of hearing and have blurry vision. (LOL)

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  35. I guess now that the election is over I really don’t see the purpose anymore of continuing the assignment of people into trendy made-up identity groups–Never Trumpers, Trumpets, Cruzers, etc. etc. It seems that individuals on the right might be able to make better, more considered assessments and arguments about our nation’s future and be more accessible and listened to in discussions if those pre-determined shorthand divisions weren’t still so prominent.

    elissa (c1cac5)

  36. she did seem exceedingly shallow, this power’s person, I guess to mask her dark anti Israeli heart,

    narciso (d1f714)

  37. ==Cass Sunstein must be hard of hearing and have blurry vision. (LOL)==

    Non geriatric, attractive, hetero liberal women seem to be in rather short supply so you probably should not be too hard on Cass if he had to settle.

    elissa (c1cac5)

  38. when she was a department chair, she banned faculty by signing on to Petraeus’s consultations on afghan policy, a cold cold heart I think,

    btw, Carson has not officially confirmed his selection,

    narciso (d1f714)

  39. on a smaller scale, I remember all the conflicts and perceived ethical lapses imputed to the medici, before the 94 governors race, all the denizens he ran into south florida, who could have been cast members in Miami vice or burn notice, twenty years later,

    narciso (d1f714)

  40. Guinness, U2, and Maureen O’Hara were great Irish exports.
    Samantha Power — not so much.

    Cruz Supporter (102c9a)

  41. she’s no Fiona glennane, that’s for sure, political reporting seems to be as solid as the paparazzis, actually less so since they hold to some sorts of evidence,

    narciso (d1f714)

  42. Of course HUD could be screwed up worse than it is. It could become VA-level bad.

    Nick M. (d6362a)

  43. HUD has a long history of corruption at the highest levels. Carson is certainly an honest man and that could well be the most important criteria.

    dunce (ce5e2d)

  44. Cruz Supporter (102c9a) — 11/23/2016 @ 3:53 pm

    The MSM is always going to look to subvert President Trump. But so, too, will some of the right-of-center #NeverTrumpers.

    They’re going to want to find justifications for opposing him during the election.

    Look at the hysteria regarding all these alleged “broken campaign promises.”

    Not even whispering, “Jeff Sessions as AG” seems to be able to calm them down.

    The people who like Jeff Sessions weren’t #NeverTrumpers, by and large.

    I don’t know about National Review. (if they like Sessions)

    Theer are some appointments that many people opposed to a lot they see as wrong would like.

    Sammy Finkelman (1190c5)

  45. Trump’s entourage is divided on Secretary of State. A few want Giuliani, others say he has confirmation issues because of his enormous number of foreign clients oof his security advice firm, while Giuliani says 90% of those he was adviseing on security are companies, not governments.

    People on the transition apparenly then said if he is good on advising people on protection from terrorism, then name him Director of National Intelligence. Giuliani earlier seemed to say that was the only job he would take, for which it wold be worth disruoting his life, and he did not want Attorney General

    Trump probably thinks Giuliani is not really good for Secretary of State. Some of his entourage suggested Mitt Romney for Secretary of State. Trump met with him. The meeting went well, although that’s not the same thing as being close to naming him. It is interesting that Mitt Romney in 2012 said Russia was the most important foreign policy challenge, and Barack Obama said the 1980;s want their foreign policy back – i.e. Mitt Romney is out of tcuch – but now he is acting like he is vindicated, and since Trump was so favorable to Russia, it may mean he wants to get rid of that impression. Trump also said he wanted someone who agreed with his “America First” foreign policy, whatever that could turn out to be.

    When this got out, all sorts of people contacted Kelly Anne Ccnway saying how can Trump name Mitt Romney, who called him a con man, as Secretary of State? And Mitt Romney wanted to defeat Donald Trump, or at least keep Utah from going into his column. Nikki Haley was against him, but she supported him in the general election.

    So they are looking or looking again at other names. Senator Bob Corker. David Petraus, General Keene.

    What they should do is ask former Secretary George Shultz advice. – Although in good health apparently, Shultz is 97 – correction, 96 – so he’s a bit old to serve, but he could name people – since the people he would know are themselves probably somewaht old, he should be asked to name people who could recommend someone.

    A slight negative is that Shulrz was a member of the board of directors of Theranos, whose micro-sample blood testing technology doesn’t actually seem to work properly, from 2011-2015, but when reports started commng in at the start of 2015, he moved to Theranos’ board of counselors, so he hasn’t really had bad judgement. He’s just one of the people roped in to what sounded like a brilliant and extremely innovative idea. It never was ready for prime time. If it had no basis at all, I have to wonder what was Elizabeth Holmes thinking?

    Sammy Finkelman (1190c5)


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