Out Of Control And Powerless

Never thought you'd hear those words describing Barack Obama, huh? Nevertheless, that looks to be the case:

Eli Lake reports in the Washington Times that the White House never approved the appointment of Chas Freeman:

“Nor did Mr. Blair seek the White House's approval before he announced the appointment of Mr. Freeman, said Mr. Blair's spokeswoman, Wendy Morigi.

"The director did not seek the White House's approval," Ms. Morigi said. "In addition to his formal background security investigation, we expect that the White House will undertake the typical vetting associated with senior administration assignments."

This is pretty amazing. One has to wonder how relations are these days between Rahm Emanuel and Blair. Jennifer Rubin writes that now that we know he wasn't even vetted it will be even easier for Obama to dump Freeman. What's taking so long?

There's a very good reason that Obama didn't resoundingly endorse this guy - he's so bad that there's bipartisan opposition to him already! After all, look at this Fox report:

So far this story has been largely confined to the blogs and op-ed pages, but today the Wall Street Journal ran a straight news piece on Hoekstra's letter to Blair. I expect some major developments on Freeman's appointment tomorrow, developments which should prompt the New York Times and Washington Post to actually report on the one Obama appointment that's so egregious it's precipitated bipartisan opposition. This story is building, not receding.

Couldn't be inexperience or incompetence, could it? Nah, not for the Obamessiah. Here's a much more detailed report that provides the icing on the cake:

THE WEEKLY STANDARD has learned that the Inspector General at the Office of National Intelligence has already begun his investigation into Chas Freeman's financial ties to Saudi Arabia and China. Eli Lake reports today in an extremely thorough piece for the Washington Times that those ties "could oblige [Freeman] to recuse himself from some matters regarding China as well as Myanmar." Freeman might also be asked to recuse himself from matters involving the Saudis, who largely underwrote his Middle East Policy Council.

Perhaps the most stunning revelation in Lake's report is that the White House never vetted Freeman. The White House was never even made aware of Blair's pick to head the National Intelligence Council according to spokesman Wendy Morigi. "The director did not seek the White House's approval," Morigi said. She added that "In addition to his formal background security investigation, we expect that the White House will undertake the typical vetting associated with senior administration assignments." This would explain why Robert Gibbs pleaded ignorance of the whole matter when questioned by Jake Tapper earlier this week about Freeman's financial ties and controversial views.

It's not clear that Freeman has even passed the background checks and received the security clearances necessary to hold the post he's been offered, but what does seem clear is that were he not a political appointee, Freeman would struggle to obtain the necessary clearances. His financial ties to unsavory regimes are too many and too large. Also, as the editors at the Washington Times write today in a piece tied to Lake's reporting, "Freeman would not enjoy the trust of our key allies in the Middle East and Asia." There are very real concerns that his appointment could stymie the flow of intelligence between the United States and states like Israel and Taiwan.

Lake also points out the undeniable hypocrisy of an Obama administration appointment with such close ties to CNOOC, the Chinese state-owned oil company. Before the election, the Obama campaign targeted Charlie Black, a senior adviser to the McCain campaign, for taking on CNOOC as a client. It was the firm's investments in Iran that prompted a press release titled "What McCain Won't Tell You About Iran" and stated that "many of his top advisors lobbied for companies doing business with Iran or otherwise have a vested interest in Iran." That company was CNOOC and at the time Chas Freeman was serving on its international advisory board. Just last year, with Freeman still serving on that board, the Treasury Department issued sanctions on Burma that implicated CNOOC for its links to individuals involved in drug trafficking and clashes with workers in that country. And in 2007, CNOOC's chief financial officer responded to calls for a boycott of Burma military junta by telling the Wall Street Journal the firm would increase its investments because, "If we pull out, then we can't successfully invest our money in terms of exploration success."

So far the Washington Post and the New York Times have failed to run a single news story on the controversy surrounding Freeman's appointment to a key intelligence post. The AP is busy writing about Sasha and Malia's new swing set. Perhaps an official investigation, launched with bipartisan support in Congress and involving a steaming pile of political hypocrisy, will be enough to warrant a report.

So what do you imagine the call between Dennis Blair and Rahm Emanuel was like when Rahm finally learned of this appointment and what kind of embarassment it was going to cause the White House?

Out of control and powerless? Looking a bit that way, don't you think? I'm guessing the delay in dumping Freeman is due to the Obama administration figuring out the least damaging way to spin this debacle. Stay tuned.

There's my two cents.