Early on, the Bush team made a fateful decision about Clarke. They asked him to stay on at the National Security Council -- but demoted him from the high position he had held under Bill Clinton. Clarke had for eight years enjoyed more access to the president than the head of the CIA or FBI. Suddenly he found himself just another NSC senior director.This is an interesting point and explains a little of Mr. Clarke's bitterness. It doesn't quite work, though, because in the Clinton Administration his advice, while perhaps listened to, was generally derided or ignored-- he was the house hawk. See "Showstoppers: Nine reasons why we never sent our Special Operations Forces after al Qaeda before 9/11," The Weekly Standard, January 26, 2004 Richard H. Shultz Jr. Volume 9, Issue 19, or the overheads.It’s a general rule of management that you never demote anybody important: You fire them, and fast, or else they will sabotage your organization. If Bush wanted to retain Clarke’s services, he should have kept him in his old job. Failing that, he should have pushed him out the door on the Monday after Inauguration day.
[in full at 04.03.25a.htm ]
To return to Eric Rasmusen's weblog, click http://php.indiana.edu/~erasmuse/w/0.rasmusen.htm.