In his role as Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo has proven
himself a fascinating combination of sycophant and bully.
On the one hand, it’s evident that his life mission is to
gain the approval of Donald Trump, no matter the cost. He’s made sure to attune his every position
to those of the “President”. Pompeo was
instrumental in undermining the 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran (a particular
obsession for Trump), and his devotion to the Donald’s vision/intransigence has
threatened to plunge that region into war on more than one occasion.
Likewise, Pompeo has adopted Trump’s views on North
Korea. Where he was once in charge of a
covert cyber campaign against Kim Jong Un, he has now tailored his actions to
fall in line with Trump.
He has humbled himself before the dictator, and has
repeatedly claimed great success in negotiating with him. Nothing of lasting value has been achieved,
of course, and Kim Jong Un is currently demanding that Pompeo be excluded from
any future talks/negotiations. Given
Trump’s peculiar, quasi-romantic, relationship with Kim Jong Un, and his
obvious reluctance to lose that special friendship, it remains to be seen what
Pompeo will resort to next.
In another effort to gain favor with the groper-in-chief,
Pompeo has adopted DJT’s disrespectful/abusive
attitude toward women—as evidenced by his recent temper tantrum directed at NPR’s
Mary Louise Kelly. Pompeo is unable to
tolerate challenging questions, and most especially from a woman. His condescension took full flight—he
screamed at her in an expletive-filled tirade, then he employed his mentor’s
modus operandi and chose to lie about the encounter. Apparently, Kelly had to point out Ukraine to
him (on an unlabeled map)—and he later claimed she pointed to Bangladesh. Naturally, Trump felt the need to
congratulate Pompeo for his “handling” of the situation.
Personally, I believe Pompeo’s level of rage stemmed from
his takedown by Linda Ronstadt at the Kennedy Center Honors dinner (she
chastised him for enabling Trump). Given
the setting, he was unable to explode at Ronstadt, and has been looking for a
female victim ever since.
Without a doubt, Mike Pompeo is one sorry excuse for an
American Secretary of State. He doesn’t
come close to meeting the standards set by his most recent predecessors: Madeline Albright, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice,
Hillary Clinton, and yes, even John Kerry.
Our country deserves so much better—yet another reason why the November
elections are of critical importance.
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