Jed York is a Fool
I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn’t like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.
Bill Maudlin
Bored of watching the stock market gyrate like Beyoncé’s hips on an exercise ball, I decided to look in on the Senate confirmation hearings for Ashton Carter, President Obama’s nominee for defense secretary. Having never heard of Mr. Carter, I decided to do a quick Wikipedia search of the man who may someday suggest to the President, “let’s turn Iran into a parking lot.” His academic credentials include:
· Abington High School (PA)- President of the Honor Society
· Yale University- Bachelor degrees in both Physics and Medieval History, Summa Cum Laude, Phi Beta Kappa.
· Oxford University- Rhodes Scholar. Ph.D in Theoretical physics
Okay, so he’s got a few consonants after his name. But what is Ashton Carter like in real life? Here are a few comments I gathered from turning over a few Internet rocks.
· “He is brilliant and driven…he’s also arrogant and doesn’t suffer fools gladly.”
· “He’s the smartest guy in the room, and he knows it.”
· “He’s respected by the military and that’s hugely important. I don’t know that Hagel (the previous defense secretary) ever got to that level.”
· “Ash is someone who considers ideas around the table and is not afraid to express his own.”
Sooooo….Ashton Carter is considered wicked smart, ambitious, and is well-respected by his peers. He’s also described in veiled terms as a pompous jerk who can be smug and arrogant and at times considers himself to be beyond reproach. And with all that going for and against him, the President of the United States deems Ashton Carter, a brilliant man known by all to be difficult to work with, qualified to lead the Department of Defense.
Memo to San Francisco 49er President Jed York: You’re a fool.