White House press secretary Sean Spicer announced a few days ago that the replacement for Mike Flynn as National Security Adviser was limited to three candidates, Ret. Admiral Robert Harward, Ret. General David Petraeus, and Ret. Lt. General Keith Kellogg. The front runner was Robert Harward but he declined the position on Thursday. "After a 77-minute meltdown of a press conference, Trump’s national security pick to replace Flynn, retired Vice Admiral Robert Harward, turned down the offer, reportedly calling it a “sh*t sandwich,” according to CNN’s Jake Tapper. That declination spurred commentary by Ret. General Barry McCaffrey, on the problem of adequately filling the vacant post. RawStory said:
“I think part of the problem is the intellectual heavyweights of the defense community and the Republican Party all denounced the president during the campaign, so the pickings are sort of slim,” Retired General Barry McCaffrey explained. “Having said that, there are good people out there who I’m sure would consider serving.”
“The problem is the acrimonious nature, the disorganization inside the White House and for that matter, with among the government, [sic] is so profound that a lot of good people who are are going to be hesitant to risk their career for public service,” he warned.
Gen. Barry McCaffrey: Trump can’t find a Flynn replacement because no one wants to ‘risk their career
In addition to Harward declining the job offer, David Petraeus withdrew his name from consideration. That leaves Lt. General Keith Kellogg, who is "very much in the running," as Reince Priebus told Fox & Friends recently. Priebus mentioned that there were actually four candidates but did not name the fourth one. Hatewatch, cross-posted to Crooks & Liars identified the dark horse yesterday; Gaffney Proposes A Smashing Replacement For Flynn In NSA Seat: 'Jerry' Boykin:
Frank Gaffney, one of the unofficial advisers behind President Trump’s Muslim travel ban and a key right-wing voice on national security issues, has a nominee in mind to replace former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn – a bold choice, someone he thinks can help the new chief executive overcome the Flynn debacle.
Ret. Lt. Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin.
On Tuesday, Gaffney tweeted his advice to Trump: “Retired Lieutenant General William 'Jerry' Boykin is that man. He can help Trump make America great again.”
Since 2012, Boykin has been executive vice president of the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT hate group. If the Family Research Council isn't ringing any bells, it is a place where the dots can be connected in right-wing-nut-job land and you'll love the picture that the connected dots reveal. The Very Reverand James Dobson runs the Family Research Council. James Dobson is, perhaps coincidentally, the pastor that led a religious symposium in Trump Tower in spring of 2016 and then revealed to the world that Donald Trump had just been born again and was a "baby Christian." James Dobson also had Mike Pence on his radio show in October of 2016 and Pence said that the experience was, "the greatest honor of my life."
Another player on the Family Research Council team is pastor Tony Perkins of Louisiana, who has explained that Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to stop a gay parade in Baton Rouge and also, more recently, Perkins praised Trump's speech at the National Prayer Breakfast a few weeks ago, particularly the part where Trump said that he would "absolutely destroy" the wall between church and state by abolishing the Johnson Amendment. The net effect of that act, if Trump succeeds, would be to encourage churches to actively endorse and campaign for political candidates without risk of losing their tax exempt status. So, once again, the creepy crawly dominionists emerge from the woodwork to move their agenda just that much closer to fruition.
Jerry Boykin is a dominionist and war monger extraordinaire. He envisions Jesus coming back to earth carrying an AK-47. He also had this to say, again from C&L:
Alongside a history of many other controversial remarks, Boykin has said that “Americans need to have more babies” to counteract the world’s growing Muslim population, called President Obama a “Communist dictator” who is using psychological operations on Americans, claimed that the repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” doctrine has led to the “absolute destruction” of the military, warned that Obama is “creating a Marxist nation” with an agenda “straight out of the Communist Manifesto," and even theorized that Obamacare is part of a conspiracy to create a “Brownshirt army.” [...]
“We’re at war,” Boykin said, as he declared that the push for gay rights is “evil” and cannot be compared to the fight for civil rights: “This is not about civil rights, this is about the evil that has come into our society and is trying to destroy our ability and our freedom to be able to worship our god as we choose.”
“We’re not rising up against evil,” he warned. “When we rise up against evil, we’ve got to rise up like an army. We’ve got to act like we’re in the military because, in fact, we are God’s army.”
One can only imagine what will happen if this self proclaimed leader of God's army is chosen to be National Security Adviser. On the one hand, one could opine that we're better off with somebody who spouts militaristic delusions about Jesus Christ and Barack Obama rather than somebody who is on the phone to Russia selling us out. Or one could opine that both mindsets are grossly disqualifying and that we need somebody balanced and grounded in diplomacy, grounded in loyalty and patriotism, certainly, to be a National Security Adviser. Or, finally, many have opined that Trump’s cabinet picks and agency appointees seem to be people who are the worst qualified for their respective positions. Whether that was ever done deliberately, it does seem to be the way that things have turned out in many instances. Jerry Boykin’s extremist, conspiracy theory views clearly land him in the worst qualified category. And if people are worried about Trump's mental health -- maybe the country can get a discount rate by putting both Trump and Boykin on the couch together. Or better yet, we could keep one out of government altogether and impeach the other, ASAP.