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Top Pentagon posts are 70 percent vacant as confirmations continue to lag
The Washington Examiner ^ | Oct 14, 2017 | Travis J. Tritten

Posted on 10/14/2017 4:31:15 AM PDT by huldah1776

The slow pace of confirming Trump administration nominees shows no signs of abating at the Pentagon as mid-October rolls around and 70 percent of its top posts remain unfilled.

Just 17 of the 57 Pentagon positions that require Senate confirmation have been filled by President Trump's appointees. That figure has barely budged in two months, leaving the military without a spectrum of leaders who can put the administration's stamp on policy.

"I think we should be very concerned and informal reports I get from the Pentagon suggest that this is a problem, that this is not just like business as usual over there," said Thomas Spoehr, the director of the Center for National Defense at the Heritage Foundation.

snip

The Senate Armed Services Committee, which has purview over vetting Defense Department nominees, has become a major bottleneck for Trump.

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the committee chairman, has said he is holding Army secretary nominee Mark Esper, a top lobbyist for defense contractor Raytheon, and others because he wants the Trump administration to provide information on military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.

McCain's committee has not held a confirmation hearing — other than for the reappointment of Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Joseph Dunford — since July. Of the 23 nominees somewhere in the confirmation process, 16 of those are currently parked at the Armed Services Committee.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: dod; mccain; pentagon; rinosvsamerica; rinosvsamerican; treasonousrinos; trump
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McCain is a stinking TRAITOR.
1 posted on 10/14/2017 4:31:15 AM PDT by huldah1776
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To: huldah1776

GOPe scum!#


2 posted on 10/14/2017 4:34:22 AM PDT by rrrod (just an old guy with a gun in his pocket.6l)
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To: huldah1776

Mr. Miyagi say: Show me “taking a dirt nap!”


3 posted on 10/14/2017 4:37:30 AM PDT by nickedknack ("Your time is up!")
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To: huldah1776

McConnell and McCain WORK FOR ISIS whom they
created along with the IRS Atrocity.

If the US is attacked, it is their fault.


4 posted on 10/14/2017 4:40:17 AM PDT by Diogenesis ("When a crime is unpunished, the world is unbalanced.")
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To: huldah1776

yup if McCain thinks Arizona summers are hot he may be in for an even hotter future for his choices against our country and what is right and good.

Others standing in defiance of doing their jobs and not assisting the president as they may be lining themselves up for a lot more trouble than they think too.


5 posted on 10/14/2017 4:46:25 AM PDT by b4me (God Bless the USA)
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To: rrrod

Do you think the generals purged under the previous administration would be willing to return?


6 posted on 10/14/2017 4:55:05 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: Diogenesis

was snorting at the thought of the State Dept warning that Hezbollah was in the States when they should be warning that ISIS is in the Senate.


7 posted on 10/14/2017 4:57:08 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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Comment #8 Removed by Moderator

To: GOPe Means Bend Over Spell Run

All this does is prove that Trump doesn’t need these people. What Trump should do now is cut those positions from the budget.

What Trump needs is judges.


9 posted on 10/14/2017 5:03:52 AM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (“The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive.” - DJT)
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To: huldah1776

McCain’s time is almost up. Tick tock, tick tock. Who is going to get into the Pentagon and clean up that cesspool of political correction? Mattis sure hasn’t lifted a finger to do it, in fact has continued the cross dresser policies of Obama. Huge disappointment.


10 posted on 10/14/2017 5:16:26 AM PDT by Uncle Sam 911
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To: Uncle Sam 911
Who is going to get into the Pentagon and clean up that cesspool of political correction?

Perhaps another CS Army could do it.

11 posted on 10/14/2017 5:18:32 AM PDT by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: huldah1776

The Constitution guarantees to the people an honest and efficient government. There is nothing in the Constitution that supports Congress’s “slow walking” rules. Senate rules are not supported by the Constitution. Any rule that slows or negates the flow of government therefore is unconstitutional. Any rule that slows a confirmation vote is unconstitutional and must be removed.IMO

Am I wrong???


12 posted on 10/14/2017 5:19:05 AM PDT by elpadre (AfganistaMr Obama said theoal was to "disrupt, dismantle and defeat al-hereQaeda" and its allies.)
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To: huldah1776

But yet the pentagon is buzzing along. If 70
Posts are vacant for close to a year, are they needed?


13 posted on 10/14/2017 5:34:37 AM PDT by napscoordinator (Trump/Hunter, jr for President/Vice President 2016)
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Comment #14 Removed by Moderator

To: rrrod

IF, those vacant POSTS are truly important, you BET, that an NCO from the appropriate military service, has stepped up, to do the job, until the Poly-cracks get off their 6!!!


15 posted on 10/14/2017 5:55:47 AM PDT by SandRat (Duty, Honor, Country)
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To: huldah1776

I believe they can be either appointed when Congress goes into recess or they can be placed in the position and doing the job regardless. In either case, however, they won’t be paid by the government until they are confirmed.

I believe in many cases they don’t need the money. Donald Rumsfeld, as an example, had to sell something like a billion dollars worth of defense stocks to accept the job as Defense Secretary.

I was once appointed to a high level job but not confirmed by the corporate brass. I retained my old salary and did the job. (I was annoyed as heck, but the job did get done.)


16 posted on 10/14/2017 6:05:08 AM PDT by Gen.Blather
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To: elpadre

honest and efficient government.


An efficient government? Define it.

We had an efficient government that installed Obamacare, is that what you want? We had an efficient government that “solved” immigration. and many other recent examples.

No, we want a government that follows the law and constitution if it takes forever.

Besides most problems are solve by the people long before the government gets’ involved and the government usually makes it worse.


17 posted on 10/14/2017 6:31:29 AM PDT by PeterPrinciple (Thinking Caps are no longer being issued but there must be a warehouse full of them somewhere.)
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To: huldah1776

Putting this country in deep, deep jeopardy.


18 posted on 10/14/2017 6:43:24 AM PDT by moovova
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To: moovova

The repubs are traitors to their electorate, traitors to their oath of office and seditionists. What absolute losers.


19 posted on 10/14/2017 6:47:42 AM PDT by hal ogen (First Amendment or Reeducation Camp?)
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To: huldah1776

OTOH, the Pentagon continues to function. Do we need those extra high paying positions? Cut the budget.


20 posted on 10/14/2017 7:37:45 AM PDT by bgill (CDC site, "We don't know how people are infected with Ebola.")
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