Bottom of the barrel

Richard Grenell, Ambassador to Germany and impresario of the recent Belgrade/Pristina agreements that are expected to open air and train service between the two cities, is pulling up stakes. He is headed back to Washington to be Director of National Intelligence, the leader if not the boss of 17 US intelligence agencies with a budget of $50 billion. He will also be the principal intelligence advisor to the President.

This is extraordinary. A gay Evangelical and white nationalist, he is a “communications” (i.e. PR) guy with no intelligence experience who has accumulated a dismal record for offending Berlin. The ink on his Pristina/Belgrade agreements isn’t even dry. I won’t be surprised if they evaporate before effective implementation. Grenell pushed himself into the Balkans not to fix anything but rather in a blatant effort to catch the President’s eye by delivering some sort of international triumph. As soon as he had even a glint of that, off he goes to bigger and better things.

A lot bigger and better. President Trump has been unhappy with the intelligence community because it concluded that Russia interfered with the 2016 election and will do it again if not stopped. Trump has also been anxious to get evidence of Ukrainian interference in the election and dirt on former Vice President Biden and his son from Ukraine, efforts that resulted in impeachment. Had the intelligence community delivered what he wanted in Ukraine, Trump would not have needed Rudy Giuliani’s help.

The DNI job has been in “acting” hands since August. It is being reported that Grenell will also be acting. That avoids Senate confirmation, which could be difficult for Grenell. He was confirmed as Ambassador to Germany by a dismal vote of only 56-42. Acting status also gives the President stronger leverage over appointees. We can expect Grenell to toady 100% to Trump’s whims, helping him to parry intelligence community judgments that differ from the President’s predilections. This appointment–like Barr at Justice, Pompeo at State, and O’Brien at the National Security Council–is intended to solidify political control over key government agencies and ensure that they toe Trump’s erratic lines, no matter how far they stray from reality.

I suppose there have been more harmful appointments in this Administration, but this one is destined to be high on that scale. Grenell is a spinmeister, not a truth teller. The intelligence community will find itself in not only incompetent but ill-meaning hands. This would be the bottom of the barrel, if the barrel had a bottom.