Hertling: Mark Milley’s Impossible Job
Plus: The GOP’s Accidental Case for Joe Biden
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MARK HERTLING: Mark Milley’s Impossible Job.
TODAY IS A SPECIAL DAY at Joint Base Myer–Henderson Hall, the military post abutting Arlington National Cemetery and overlooking our nation’s capital. As the post of chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), the nation’s highest military office, changes hands, there will be a simultaneous farewell for Army Gen. Mark Milley and hail (that’s military for “welcome”) for Air Force Gen. Charles Q. “CQ” Brown. After almost 45 years wearing the cloth of the country in peace and war, the last four of which were as CJCS under two very different presidents, Gen. Milley will be briefly feted by several dignitaries and then walk off Summerall Field with his spouse and begin retirement.
This “hail and farewell” may seem very similar in its pomp and parade to the change of command ceremonies that other officers get. But there is an important difference. In most change of command ceremonies, commanders assume legal authority over and direct responsibility for the troopers standing before them. In today’s ceremony in Arlington, the ceremonial unit from the Army’s Old Guard and the representative formations from each of the military’s services are not beholden to any operational orders given by either Gen. Milley or Gen. Brown. That’s because the duties and responsibilities of the CJCS are different from those wielded by a typical military commander.
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WILLIAM SALETAN: The GOP’s Accidental Case for Joe Biden.
THE REPUBLICAN CANDIDATES FOR PRESIDENT have a shared set of talking points: The economy sucks, the government is too big, the national debt is out of control, and we need a border wall to stop illegal immigration. In Wednesday’s debate, they hit all those points. But they also revealed, inadvertently, that the talking points are phony. Their comments showed that President Joe Biden is doing a better job than they want to admit—and that the GOP is thoroughly hypocritical.
Here are five examples…
🚨OVERTIME🚨
Happy Friday! Especially to readers who are federal employees, as the 10/1 shutdown seems all but certain, with Dems challenging moderate-ish Republicans and thanking Matt Gaetz & crew for making them pointlessly walk the plank earlier today.If you’re not aware of what a shutdown is like for feds, here’s a primer from the WaPo. It’s particularly hard on those who feed our Congress and their staff. Congress is going to have an interesting October!
And to our NYC readers, stay safe and stay clear of polluted water and… sea lions?
Tune in… To Sarah Longwell on the Michael Steele podcast.
Fred Kagan on Ukraine… Where things stand, on Conversations with Bill Kristol.
RIP DiFi… A trailblazer who sought to persuade. OK, maybe not activist teens. (There is life after the Senate, Barbara Boxer says…) At today’s Atlantic Festival here in D.C., Hillary Clinton told this story:
She was a great colleague of mine, I’ll tell you one final story. After the ‘08 primary, then Senator Obama called and asked if I would meet with him, but could we go somewhere that wouldn’t draw a lot of attention. Well, that’s going to be hard. But we thought, and I called Dianne. I said, Dianne, can Barack and I meet at your house? And she said sure, of course you can, and I had total trust in her. I literally got down in the back seat of the car, leaving my house, so nobody would know I was coming… Then we spent a couple hours in her living room talking about the campaign, about what I would do to support him, what he saw as the challenges in the general election. The kind of conversation that led to our working closely together, him asking me to be Secretary of State. And Dianne left us alone except every so often, popping in, asking us if we wanted more Chardonnay. I will miss her a lot. She was a very special person.
The RFK charade continues… As an independent.
We have our first GA plea deal… It was the bail bondsman.
Shapiro 2028? The next race begins now.
Not sure… If this is the “Article III Project” or the “III Percenters.” Maybe the difference is just wearing a suit?
In George SantosLand… The disgrace from NY-3 is… married now?
Jeff Clark gets denied… In his efforts to move his GA case to federal court.
Tuberville steps in it… And is called out by Arizona’s Mark Kelly and other Senate veterans.
An arrest… In the murder of Tupac Shakur.
Editorial photos provided by Getty Images. For full credits, please consult the article.