Donald Trump desperately needed a win. His first month in office was one unmitigated disaster after another. His stupid feud about the size of his inauguration crowd , his disastrous immigration ban rollout, and the cherry on top was the sudden ouster of Mike Flynn as NSA under circumstances that may well cripple the entire Trump administration.
From start to finish, the Mike Flynn nomination was a nightmare. Everybody with 12 functioning brain cells knew that Flynn was too erratic and unqualified to be the NSA. His actions in speeches during the campaign, and his habit of retweeting far right fake news were big red flags. Trump knew when he started getting blowback, especially for Flynn’s sanctions discussion with the Russian Ambassador that he couldn’t appoint just another loyalist toady, he had to have a breath of fresh air, so he chose General HR McMaster, an intelligent, outside the box thinker, who has a low tolerance for “yes men”, and an independent streak. The minute I heard more of his history and make up, as a Chicagoan, two words immediately came to mind, Orlando W Wilson. I know, “Who”? I’ll explain.
I have seen this scenario before, and it backfired. There’s one thing about being an old fart, you remember a lot of shit. I was only 3 when it happened, but I became obsessed with it, and read about it intensively. Back in 1960, the Daley administration in Chicago was mired in a scandal that threatened to finish Daley’s career. It was called the “Summerdale scandal” for the police district where it occurred. Here’s how it played out. It turns out that there was a small time burglar that turned out to be very successful. Mainly, he was successful because he had an agreement with several officers in the district. They covered for him, and he gave them a cut of the proceeds. He got caught, and it turned out that he was not a standup guy. He started singing his head off like a canary, earning the nickname of “the babbling burglar”.
Chicagoan’s were outraged. It was one thing to wrap your license in a $20 at a traffic stop. It was one thing for cops to lean on black and brown people, and to take bribes from brothels and bootleg gambling parlors. It was another thing entirely for the cops to be pulling up behind a store and filling their cruiser trunks with booty.
The shit was falling squarely on the head of Mayor Richard J Daley, after all, it was his police department. And I mean it was literally his, the Chicago police was an extension of the Chicago Democratic party, in other words, Daley himself. At the time, I believe we had the only police Superintendent in the country who did not have his office at police headquarters, he had it at city hall, one floor down from Daley for easier access. Like Trump-, Daley realized that he couldn’t just bluster about reform, and appoint another political hack if he wanted to survive, desperate measures were called for.
Daley named a blue ribbon commission to find a new superintendent. Heading the commission was one Orlando W Wilson, the preeminent expert on policing, he was the Dean of the Berkeley School of Criminology, and had written several texts on policing that were considered to be must reads in the business.
The process was exhausting. They interviewed police chiefs from all over the country, there were many qualified names, but nobody stood out, and Daley needed a rock star. At just the right point, when everybody was tired of culling through resumes and candidates, Daley’s “man” on the commission looked up and said “Hey, why don’t we hire our chair”? Why not? He was the chair because he was the top law enforcement expert in the country. Daley had his salvation.
But it came at a cost. Like McMaster, Wilson was intelligent, well spoken, serious and committed. He also drove a hard bargain. He insisted on total independence, and a long, ironclad contract. Daley had no choice, he needed this lifeline to save his career. On a slow news day, he trotted Wilson out in front of the cameras and made the announcement.
Wilson became an overnight sensation, but he was also the bane in Daley’s life. He moved his office from city hall to police HQ, closed several precincts and redrew maps of the police districts. He instituted additional training, and created a police oversight office. Cops were outraged, he was ruining their police department. But Daley was stuck, and he had no choice to tell them to shut up and stand behind Wilson. Wilson served for 7 years before retiring to spend more time with his family, but he corrected some of the basest abuses in police policy, and also to an extent depoliticized it. The first thing Daley did when he left was to move the superintendents office back into city hall and name a trusted party hack in his place.
I went through all of this because I think we may be looking at the same thing all over again. After the disaster of Flynn, Trump couldn’t afford another know nothing, loyal bootlicker. He needed a legitimate man in that spot. And by all accounts, he got one. But the general consensus is that General McMaster is his own man, with an independent streak. He is not a yes man, and has no use for them anywhere near him. Everybody that knows him said that they doubted that he took this job without significant concessions from Trump about his independence in staffing and running the NSC. A good early indication of just how much leeway McMaster has would be an announcement in the near future that the Chairman of the JCS is back on the NSC, and Steve Bannon is out. If that happens, we have a clear sign that McMasters is going to be exactly what is needed, an honest broker on national security issues, without a political agenda or the influence of one. And Trump is going to have to listen to him, because he will be the sole messenger on national security issues.
Is history repeating itself yet again? Like Daley, Trump found himself in the uncomfortable position of being in a scandal he couldn’t control, and ended up having to trade some of his power and control for someone who could rehabilitate his image. Orlando Wilson reformed and modernized the police department, which was good for all Chicagoan’s, even if Daley hated him for it. If McMaster can depoliticize and upgrade the operation of the NSC, that is good news for all of us as a country, even if it’s the seventh ring of hell for Trump. Tough shit Donny.