Biden's Cabinet: Let us Count the Ways

That “President” Biden’s administration is the most inept, counterproductive, outright laughable in post-World War II American history is beyond question. One hardly needs to list out all the failures, missed goals and broken promises that we’ve suffered through in the last two years.  From generationally high inflation to skyrocketing energy prices to product shortages to rampant illegal immigration, Biden’s pathetic collection of Keystone Kops advisors and operatives could not have done a better job of destroying American culture, ruining the economy, gutting our defenses, and robbing us of international respect and influence if they’d tried.

Much of the blame can be laid at the feet of his sorrowful collection of incapable, bumbling cabinet members. To a person, they are simply a pitiful assemblage of special-interest box-checkers, apparently chosen for their appearance and demographic makeup, as opposed to their actual expertise and experience.

Mercifully, we won’t go through an analysis of every one of them here. Let’s just look at a few and see how they’ve played their role in harming the country with their utter incompetence and their hyperpartisan behavior.

Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg

This appointment could be the most egregious of a truly notable group of incompetents. Mayor Pete was loved by the rank-and-file Democratic primary crowd not because of any worthwhile talent or accomplishment, but because of his choice of his life partner’s gender. He is the ultimate box-checker, the quintessential example of valueless progressive virtue-signaling. Buttigieg has never had the slightest experience in matters of complex international logistics, yet here he is, occupying a high-profile cabinet post and drawing inordinate negative attention to a normally invisible position by his having messed things up so badly.

Empty store shelves, container ships backed up, airlines canceling flights, inane statements like, “Just buy an electric car,” and more mark his totally deficient stewardship over what should be a relatively easy, straightforward post. No one can even name a past Secretary of Transportation, but everyone knows Mayor Pete because things are so screwed up. And for no good reason.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken

Where do we even start? Rolling over to China in the Administration’s first high-stakes face-to-face meeting in Alaska in March 2021? His part in the completely disastrous and humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021? His total lack of personal gravitas with a demeanor that screams of soft weakness? As America’s diplomatic face to the world, Blinken is the utter embodiment of the term “pushover.”

Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen

There was a great TV ad a few decades ago, where a sleazy salesman was on the phone with a disgruntled customer, caught in an obvious lie about his substandard product, saying, “I have… uh…. total confidence… that… uh…. everything will work out just fine” as copious, comical amounts of sweat poured from his brow. That’s Yellin, as she admitted that this horrific inflation would not be transitory after all, her earlier pronouncements to the contrary now exposed as the transparent partisan lies everyone knew them to be all along.

Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas

Mayorkas insists that our border is secure and there is no illegal immigration crisis. His greatest skill is that he seems to lie more effortlessly, more easily in front of the camera than any of the other cabinet members. He has probably done more damage to the country than any other cabinet member by his willingness to betray America’s fundamental, long-term interests by encouraging the administration’s intentional illegal immigration invasion.

Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm

This choice is particularly rich. Energy -- which really means the management of nation’s exploration and production of fossil fuels -- is a very complicated and demanding position. Unlike many other cabinet posts, the selection of Energy Secretary demands that the individual have actual, real expertise and experience in that area. This is not a position for “on the job” training. An in-depth knowledge of worldwide energy market/economic dynamics, a true understanding of the U.S. auto market, the ability to balance competing economic vs. environmental factors, the capability to be mindful of political considerations without being blindly beholden to them to the detriment of the country, all these skills are essential in order for the Secretary of Energy to effectively discharge his responsibilities.

In fairness to Granholm, very few of her predecessors have satisfied all those requirements either. But most have at least done little harm, unlike her. Granholm apparently has no real knowledge of anything and simply parrots the Green line that, “Fossil fuels are bad, buy an EV, drive past the gas station.” That’s our national energy policy? Really? The conflicting considerations of worldwide oil supply and demand, domestic exploration/production, our national refining capacity, fuel distribution/logistics, political/environmental issues, all of these must be weighed in proper proportion in order to create an energy policy that works to the country’s benefit. Granholm gives every indication that she knows none of this whatsoever, and worse yet, doesn’t care. Her aim is clearly just to prop up the current Administration’s political position.

We could go on, with cabinet member after cabinet member. Are any of them experts in their field? Being from Massachusetts, the memory of Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh as a glib-talking, heavily-accented Boston mayor totally bereft of any substantive accomplishments is all too clear to me. What notable, innovative enhancements has he brought to the national labor market in his current position? None. Raimondo? Becerra? The bungling Lloyd Austin? Cardona? Fudge? Any of the others? They are all box-checking political rewards.

Attorney General Merrick Garland

Garland is the exception in this group. He has actual professional qualifications to be attorney general. He was a well-established U.S Circuit Court of Appeals judge in D.C. and has had a long career in the legal profession. Unlike all the other cabinet members, Garland’s education, experience, and expertise in his field are beyond question.

Unfortunately, his obvious qualifications make him the saddest, most pathetic political hack of a group of truly notable hacks. Garland can’t fall back on the “I didn’t know any better” or the “Well, it’s not my area” excuse. He does know better and it is his area. When he initiates a fraudulent, arbitrary prosecution against a former Trump associate or refuses to prosecute flagrant crimes against conservative Republicans, there can be no doubt that Garland is carrying out a one-sided, partisan legal strategy of the worst kind. He is so prejudiced and vengeful that he makes Eric Holder (known for being “Obama’s wingman”) and Loretta Lynch (she of the infamous Clinton runway meeting) look like Atticus Finch by comparison.

The fact that Merrick Garland is the only Biden cabinet member with any semblance of professional credentials and that he misuses those credentials in the extreme manner in which he does says everything one needs to know about this absolute embarrassment of a presidency.

Image: White House

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