Johnson, unlike his most recent predecessors, has never actually held an executive position governing a state or managing a complex organization.
News coverage instead stresses that Johnson is the “first African-American” to hold the No. 1 position at DHS. Because, you know, diversity will keep us safe. Here’s more you should know about Johnson: He’s a lifelong beneficiary of the government/law firm revolving door, dating back to the Clinton years. In a recent interview with a legal website, Johnson cheerfully bragged that his initial “foray into national security was a fluke, really. The Clinton White House recruited me to be general counsel of the Air Force. I had no idea what the job was about, had never been in the military and had never set foot in the Pentagon.”
That’s a public confidence booster, huh?
Johnson counts among the “big breaks” in his life a fateful meeting with Obama in 2006. He went on to shovel gobs of money into Obama’s campaigns and Democratic coffers. In 2008, this top campaign finance bundler served on the Team Obama transition team. Next, Johnson found himself appointed to the position of general counsel at the Defense Department. He was “involved” in ending the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy and reportedly “oversaw” the use of unmanned drone strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan.
White House aides claim that Johnson is a “respected national security leader.” But respected by whom (other than Democratic fundraisers) the administration will not say.
Perhaps we might comfort ourselves if the No. 2 in charge at DHS had strong qualifications and a record on national security to compensate for Johnson’s deficiencies. Sorry. Reid exploited the nuked filibuster threshold to ram through Alejandro Mayorkas’ nomination as deputy DHS secretary. Mayorkas remains under investigation for a partisan cash-for-foreign-investor-visas scandal by the DHS inspector general’s office, which itself remains under investigation for fraud and ethics violations that endanger national security.
The elevation of Obama’s stooge donors to the two highest civilian homeland security posts in the country comes as both vote-seeking Democrats and big-business Republicans prepare for another illegal alien amnesty push next year.
The inmates are running the asylum. Homeland security threats and ciphers are running the homeland security department. God help us all.
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