Get Used to the Shuffling

UPDATE from The Intercept:

ACCORDING TO THE Wall Street Journal, Frank Gaffney, president of the Center for Security Policy, has joined Donald Trump’s transition team to work on national security issues. Trump’s campaign has denied that Gaffney is officially part of the transition, and the New York Times is reporting that Trump is merely relying on “advice” from Gaffney.

  Jon Schwartz

Original post:

Who's who in the Trump admin?  We may have a hard time keeping up for the next four years.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence formally signed documents that put him in charge of the transition team. [...] In one of his first moves, Mr. Pence ordered the removal of all lobbyists from the transition team, said one transition team member with knowledge of the decisions.

  WSJ

Credit where credit is due. Kudos to Mike.

[F]ormer Michigan Rep. Mike Rogers, once considered a candidate to lead the Central Intelligence Agency, was ousted from the Trump transition team’s national security unit. Matthew Freedman, who was leading the group’s planning for the White House National Security Council, also departed.

[...]

Mr. Rogers was told he was being replaced because everyone who was brought in by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, the transition team’s original chairman, was being ousted.

The favors and punishments will be a hallmark of this presidency, I think. Logically speaking, if this continues, it could leave a trail of resentful people with national security and secret information.

MIKE ROGERS: CNN nat'l security commentator; Michigan Rep 2001-2015; former House chair Permanent select Comm on Intel & member Energy & Commerce panel; said Snowden was a Russian spy; espouses American exceptionalism; wanted to block the Senate Intel (torture) report; pro expanded NSA operations

MATTHEW FREEDMAN: Davis, Manafort & Freedman lobbyist for foreign dictators, gambling corporation GTECH, telecommunications, and others

Frank Gaffney, a Reagan administration veteran, was brought in to assist on national security issues, as has GOP U.S. Reps. Pete Hoekstra and Devin Nunes.

[...]

[The transition team] faced an early test as Rudy Giuliani, a leading candidate to lead the State Department, was targeted by Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. The Republican senator, who has tried to block previous presidential appointments, criticized the former New York mayor for calling for the bombing of Iran in 2015. He also said he opposed former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton, who was also under consideration for the job.

[Giuliani and Bolton represent] “the most bellicose interventionist wing of any party,” Mr. Paul told Reason magazine. “I can’t support anybody to be our secretary of state who didn’t learn the lesson of the Iraq war.”

[...]

Mr. Giuliani is also drawing scrutiny for his regular appearances at events supporting an Iranian opposition group, called the Mujahedin-e Khalq, which the State Department designated as a terrorist organization from 1997 through 2012. [Mr. Bolton has also been paid to speak to the MEK.]

[...]

The Treasury Department launched a probe into the legality of former officials being paid by the MEK or its affiliates while it was still on the State Department’s terror list, U.S. officials have said. Treasury officials declined to comment on the status of that probe, including whether it has been closed.

Is Rand Paul the only thing standing between us and complete disaster?

FRANK GAFFNEY: Wash Times columnist; called Obama a Muslim; birther; anti-Muslim; anti-arms control, Ass't to Richard Perle in Reagan admin & acting Defense Sec after Perle stepped down; banned from Conservative Political Action Conference for extreme anti-Islamic book; author of Sharia: the Threat to America; says Saddam Hussein was behind Oklahoma City bombing; founder Center for Security Policy and host of Secure Freedom Radio addressing "current and emerging threats to national security, sovereignty and our ways of life"; ran a racist (anti-Chinese) ad against Debbie Stabenow which he shut down in response to backlash;

RUDY GIULIANI:  no intro needed

JOHN BOLTON:  Good lord!  That rabid anti-Islam, anti-UN Neocon dog again?

PETE HOEKSTRA: member House Intel Comm; torture proponent, opposed release of torture report; anti-Islam; announced that WMD were located in Iraq; exaggerated and lied about Iran's nuke capabilities; founding member of Tea Party Caucus

DAVID NUNES: current chair House Intel Comm; member Ways & Means Comm; former co-chair US-Mexico Friendship Caucus (!); tax reduction proponent for businesses & consumption tax proponent; anti-environmental regs; global warming denier; nat'l security hawk; proposed acts to accelerate fossil fuel exploration and production, triple number of nuclear reactors over 30 years, support market-based alternative energy supplies, "solve" health care by reducing Medicaid and Medicare, prohibit future public pension bailouts; called environmentalists extremist, Marxist, socialist, Maoist and Communist; pro-torture

Also on Tuesday, Ben Carson, one of Mr. Trump’s top allies, said he declined an offer to become the next secretary of Health and Human Services.

Really, Ben? Were you actually offered a position?

“I don’t particularly want to work inside the government,” Dr. Carson said on a conference call with conservatives.

So tell me, Ben. Why was it you ran for president?

I should give Ben the benefit of the doubt, because he might not have realized the president works inside the government.

On Tuesday night, Mr. Trump tweeted: “Very organized process taking place as I decide on Cabinet and many other positions. I am the only one who knows who the finalists are!”

Dear god! They really are in trouble if they can't take away his Twitter.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

UPDATE:  House Intel Committee Chair Devin Nunes is incorrectly identified in the above as David Nunes.