Shiv-seki

On Monday morning Obama announced that he has chosen retired General Eric Shinseki to be Secretary of Veterans Affairs. I don't know what the Secretary of Veterans Affairs does exactly, but as far as the symbolism goes it is an impeccable pick. Shinseki was the guy who told the country that the Bush administration was living in a fantasyland when it came to preparing for Iraq. He is the one who went before Congress and said that it would take, "something in the order of several hundred thousand soldiers" to occupy Iraq successfully. He is the one who, as Obama said on Meet the Press on Sunday, "was right."

Also, I think it's great to know that Shinseki was able to speak truth to power and eventually have his dignity restored. I would like to think that he been chuckling to himself a lot lately.

Morever, the pick illustrates Obama's deft political ability or, as James Fallows writes so well, his, "extremely refined aspect of sticking in the shiv." Obama can keep his rhetoric bipartisan and classy, his demeanor lofty and presidential, while still grinding the faces of all those responsible for the awful pre-war planning in the dirt. He doesn't need to say anything about what the previous administration did. He doesn't need to list and go off on their massive failures. The pick says it all.

"Revenge is a dish best served cold." (An Old Klingon proverb, I believe.)