Apparently he's got another tell all book about to come out. Timely, Leon, given that we've got a hugely important election next month with your "fellow" Democrats in the cross hairs of the party of hate.
I say "fellow" Democrats because Leon has always been a guy of the safe establishment who never had a reformist idea overtake his pandering to the current order of things.
I can speak with some limited contact; Leon was a fellow Santa Claran (think Jesuits, think northern California) in the 50's a couple of years behind me undergraduate. I didn't like him then because he had the reputation of an ass kissing pet of some of the key clerics running that show at the time.
Always in their pocket, always held up as a model of the way people should be. I knew he'd ascend to the northern Calif. political establishment and sure enough, after Congress, onto Presidential staffs and leading our intelligence and defense establishments.
Now, in a most untimely way, like Hillary. who at least had a early youthful flirtation with radical thought, he's finding fault with President Obama. For a while our President was not easily falling for the neo-con, neo-liberal impulse to kick the shit out of our perceived enemies, asking questions later.
I continue to be an admirer of this President who, like Jimmy Carter, has the courage to say things like.....we don't have a plan yet. The courage to reverse course before engaging us in catastrophic actions which get people killed really dead. The guts to do some thinking out loud on really complex issues, particularly of foreign policy and subject himself to criticism that he is timid or uncertain. Hell, in some cases he is justifiably unclear of the best of many lousy, life ending or ruining initiatives.
I want and have a President who is an adult. Who admits uncertainty and exercises caution before engaging on an issue or solution. America apparent wants an ass kicking cowboy who adheres to the policy of ready, fire aim. They call it being decisive and bold. I call it stupid and disrespectful of the harm that bad decisions can do to our people.
Look what ready, fire, aim got us in the Bush era. Deception. Malfeasance leading up to 9-11. More deception to make it look like Iraq made any sense. Throwing no-strings attached money at the banking industry at the onset of the great meltdown, without accountability. the long war. The list is enormous.
Leon, you and your type are pompous, self-serving protectors of the establishment from which you came and with whom you have earned your stripes as their boy. You conflate your catholic certainty of the "truth" and autocratic infallibility with leadership.
I want candor. I want, yes, human frailty in my leaders. I want humanity in my leadership. President Obama is bright enough to know that he'd become a human punching bag with people like you. I respect his courage and willingness to lead us through the fog in spite of this punishment.
