Very odd, even more so than Mattis reportedly asking Michele Fluornoy to be his undersecretary at the Pentagon. (She turned him down, allegedly because implementing some of Trump’s policies would conflict with her “values.”) Fluornoy’s also an Obama alum but she’s a respected defense expert and was considered for Mattis’s position under Obama. Had Hillary won in November, Fluornoy would almost certainly be SecDef right now, the first woman ever to lead the department. Mattis might have reasonably concluded that the value of her expertise outweighed her political liabilities. But what’s the argument for appointing Anne Patterson? She’s a lifelong...