1854 Tillerson No Longer at the Tiller?

1854 Tillerson No Longer at the Tiller?

You have to feel at least a little sorry for Secretary of State ReXXon.  Until this year, he was the king of American Corporate Royalty.  Now he’s the unwilling puppet of a madman.

Do you give the job of a powerful nation’s foreign affairs to one of the least likely diplomats, someone who is used to making multi-billion dollar decisions on his own without fear of opposition?  

No, not normally.

But these are not normal times.

Let’s expand that question: Do you make an un-diplomat into the main diplomat and then undercut him in public and expect him to salute and do as he’s told?

No, not normally.

So the big question now is “did ReXXon call the president “that (expletive deleted) moron?”  Well, pretty much everyone in the room at the time says yes.  But his spokeswoman says no and now ReXXy says something in diplo-speak, a language he’s just now learning, that seems to hint that he’s perfectly okay with his erratic and irascible puppeteer.

He and the president, he says, are on the same page.  But yeah… are you reading the same book?

And how is it the State Department has been able to hire a spokeswoman but not filled half the vacancies that took place when the Obama administration packed up and left.

She’s Heather Nauart, a former second tier newscaster for Fox and other networks, and straight out of the Roger Ailes factory that mass produces brilliant journalists like Laurie Dhue and Megyn Kelly and refurbishes anchors like Linda Vester and Maria Bartiromo.

At least she lends a little class to Foggy Bottom which Thomas Jefferson, John Marshall, Daniel Webster, Condoleezza Rice and other Secretaries of State once roamed.  Let’s hope she stays around when the next Secretary is named.

But wait! ReXXon isn’t gone.  No, he isn’t. Not yet. But ask anyone in the building whether he has any clout.  When he tries -- valiantly -- to turn down the heat with North Korea, his master tweets that the secretary was “wasting his time.”

You get the impression ReXXon thought to himself something along the lines of “I guess I can do without my limo, my throne, my private jet and my stock options, but I’d better learn something about Secretary-ing because if I don’t, this country’s going to be in deep doo doo.”

And you have to give him credit for that.

TODAY’S QUOTE:

“It’s a gradual process.” -- Soon to be former Secretary of State Rex ReXXon on calming things with Rocket Man.

SHRAPNEL:

--Say what? Knock us over with a feather! The NRA says the government should consider regulations of “bump stocks,” the kind of add-on that lets a semi automatic weapon fire almost at full auto.

--Count on this:  since the NRA gets what it wants, as it wants and when it wants, new bump stock legislation will pass both houses in two heartbeats.  And likely without much debate.  But will the president sign it, and if he doesn’t… are there enough votes to override a veto?

--The automaker Renault says it wants half its cars to be electric or hybrid by 2022, five years from now.  Anyone who has ever owned a Renault has a different thought. They want their cars to be running five years from when they bought it.

I’m Wes Richards. My opinions are my own but you’re welcome to them. ®

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