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Remembering “Former Republican National Security Advisors for Biden”
The only thing I want to hear from them is an apology.
It got a lot of attention: a full-page advertisement in prominent newspapers. “Former Republican National Security Advisors for Biden.” If you didn’t see it, you heard about it. The website, natsecforbiden.com, is still up.
Thing is, while never having been deeply involved in national security issues, I know a lot of these people. Former Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-AZ); Philip Zelikow, the talented chief of staff for the 9/11 commission who was intolerable during the 1992 GOP national platform deliberations; Former US Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT), with whom I worked on the board of the Congressional Management Foundation, and is a wonderful and decent person; and especially former Ambassador and China expert Frank Lavin, who I consider a friend and briefly served as President Reagan’s chief political advisor. Frank is a very smart guy and a great author I first would turn to if looking to understand and do business in China or the Orient.
The ones I know are decent people. Well-intended. Loyal Americans. Experts in their field.
And they all owe us an apology. Each and every one of them. Have you seen or heard one? They’ve all been eerily silent this past week. I wonder why?
They spent their credibility, apparently fueled by Trump Derangement Syndrome, to help elect Joe Biden as President of the United States. It is fair to assume they knew what they were doing despite a horrendous if not incompetent record on foreign policy matters going back for 40 years.
Never Trump Republican and former Bush speechwriter Peter Wehner, who gushed about Biden’s “empathy” in 2020, has suddenly informed us of Biden’s bad judgment going back to the Vietnam withdrawal during the Ford Administration. Reading both of Wehner’s posts will make your head spin. He’s a great writer, but he long jettisoned his credibility to opine on Biden. As a Biden endorser, he also owes us an apology. I’m still waiting. And don’t hold your breath for one anytime soon. Pride is a big feature of Washington’s elitist opiners. They never admit when they’re wrong. And they’re wrong a lot.
Samples of Wehner’s work are found below, both in support of Biden and now – suddenly! – aghast at his “bad judgment.” You can’t make this stuff up.
“But watching Biden conduct himself during this campaign, which has been superbly run, and learning more of his story, has changed how I view him.
“In a different time, with a different president, Biden would not stand out. But Trump’s particular maladies have created a moment in which Biden’s greatest strengths as a person are most needed by the nation. Things like decency, honor, respect, and, yes, empathy are on the ballot. From the start of this election, Biden understood the theory of the case. He understood what the nation was thirsting for.
“This doesn’t mean Biden won’t make mistakes if he is elected president; he most certainly will. It doesn’t mean that I won’t disagree with some of what he does; I most certainly will. But what it does mean is that some measure of integrity and dignity will return to the presidency; that the unprecedented, intentional effort by an American president to divide us will end; and that a person who has experienced grief and grace in his life can use what he’s learned to help bind up our wounds.”
Now read this gem from Wehner this week and tell me where his apology is for helping foist this imbecile into the presidency (hint: you won’t find one). That’s because, as all these self-appointed experts should have known, was Biden’s well-known foreign policy record.
On national-security matters, President Biden lacks some of the most important qualities needed in those who govern—discernment, wisdom, and prudence; the ability to anticipate unfolding events; the capacity to make the right decision based on incomplete information; and the willingness to adjust one’s analysis in light of changing circumstances.
To put it in simple terms, Joe Biden has bad judgment.
Hey, thanks, Biden endorser. Maybe we can have Afghan refugees now arriving at Washington’s Dulles Airport drop by your home to collect your apology.
We are just beginning to understand the utter disaster, both humanitarian and in foreign policy, our imbecilic president has foisted upon us with his impertinent, ill-advised, and incompetently planned withdrawal from Afghanistan. Both former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US General David Petraeus (Ret.) have spoken and written brilliantly on what has transpired. Please read their wise observations.
Terror attacks are sure, now, to come our way.
Our allies no longer trust us.
How is that going to work out?
Spare me the stuff about Trump. I’m not going to relitigate the Trump Presidency. I voted for him reluctantly in 2016 and enthusiastically in 2020. His deportment at times was cringeworthy and I disagreed with a lot of his policies. But the results outweighed the optics and the mean tweets.
Unfortunately, some 80 million “voters” felt differently. Presto, Afghanistan, inflation, international disgrace, incompetence, immigration, and so much more. And we’re less than 9 months into this rolling disaster. It makes me wish for Jimmy Carter again. I hope we can survive this rickety roller coaster. We are being tested, severely.
If you voted for Biden, this disaster, these disasters, and all that will befall our great country, our families, and children ahead are on you.
Especially you “Republican National Security Experts” for Biden. I’m still waiting for your apology. And I want a promise from every GOP candidate running for President in 2024 that none of these people will consult their campaigns or be allowed in the doors of the White House, Pentagon, or State Department complexes during their presidencies.
You have plenty of other experts at your disposal.
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Very well said.
Thanks for not forgetting. We suffer greatly for the fools are great in number.
Well, if they were FORMER National Security Advisors, it’s not like THEY had anything on the line – like their job, or something – and maybe they got a nice check in the mail, from the DNC or CCP or something?
Frankly they are people who made the GOP a fiasco while they were part of it.
Any informed person who supported Biden after the BLM riots and the Democrats’ open endorsement of Woke racism has forever lost any right to call themselves Republican or conservative; its as much a failure in morality as it is in judgement.
I don’t even want to hear an apology from them. Silence would be good.
What a great post! I especially liked the before and after assessments of Biden by Peter Wehner. It is so typical that lefties are completely unaware that their words are recorded forever on the Internet. Either that or they just don’t care about having any credibility. The least you can do is start off your evaluation reversal by admitting “I’m afraid that I’ve been proven wrong about Joe Biden.” While not an actual apology, it is at least a credible explanation of the sudden change in your assessment, without sounding like a total fool.
Why stop at National Security Advisers?
I want an apology from all _________ for Biden who posted here.
I’m sorry but Gary is indisposed at the moment.
Wow, you would have thought they would have the good sense to pull down that website and truly try to memory hole the issue.
This, a thousand times, this.
There are many other pompous people such as Jim Mattis who owe us an apology. I doubt if we’ll get it.
We won’t get it from any of them.
Being Never-Trump means never having to say you’re sorry. It is a Get Out of Bad Judgement Free card.
I can understand not liking Trump. I cannot understand liking Biden enough to actually promote him like these nitwits did.
That is not your call. I am a Conservative and a Reagan Republican. Unlike, say the CCP, the Republican Party is an open party. There is no requirement that you apply for membership. You simply declare yourself.
During Rush’s Operation Chaos, Rush urged Republicans to vote for Hillary in 2008 to slow Obama’s nomination. In either Texas or Pennsylvania, these Republicans had to re-register as Democrats. There was no loyalty oath that they had to swear to switch parties.
I am a family law lawyer. At the end of the divorce, I have had husbands insist that their soon to be former wives give up their last, or keep their last name. My response and the Court’s response is that this is none of the Husband’s business, if she keeps or doesn’t keep his last name.
That is your claim/assertion, but many of us recognize that it’s just an illusion, and nobody believes it but you. Especially since what you claim for being a “Reagan Republican” bears little resemblance to how Reagan himself lived and governed.
I have already addressed this. In 2020 for the first time since 1972, I voted for the Democrat for President. I did so based on all of the information available to me at the time. My decision was reaffirmed by Trump’s behavior after the election and then during the January 6, 2021 Capitol Riot.
Since this post has been elevated to the Main Feed, I am compelled to respond directly. I was a Republican Precinct Committeeman. I ran for office in 2012 as a Republican. I have gone to Arizona State Republican Conventions. I voted for Reagan twice and have posted about my trips the Reagan Presidential Library.
It is not for you to judge that I don’t match your idea of what a “Republican” is.
Like I said, being Never-Trump is never having to say you’re sorry. It is a “Get Out of Bad Judgement Free” card. And you are a prime example of what I meant.
As you write, there is no standard imposed, so anyone could claim to be a Republican or even Conservative while everyone around them knows they’re “full of it.” You don’t seem to realize, again, that you argue AGAINST yourself while trying/claiming to argue FOR yourself.
I would tend to leave it to Reagan to judge, since that’s the standard you have set for yourself but you don’t see how badly you fail it. If providence allowed, maybe the spirit of Reagan could come to you in a dream and explain how wrong you are about him and his legacy, how Reagan himself knew what a lousy person Biden is, and so much more.
From Reagan’s diaries: “[There was] some talk about Sen. Biden — now candidate for Pres. I saw him on CNN last night speaking to the John F. Kennedy school at Harvard U. He’s smooth but pure demagog[ue] — out to save Am[erica] from the Reagan doctrine.”
But since the reality is that people pretty much make up their dreams to suit themselves, your dream of Reagan probably would – and maybe already has – give you a slap on the back and congratulate you for being so much smarter than everyone else, how right you were to vote against an “existential threat” to the PARTY and FOR an existential threat to the COUNTRY – something Reagan would never have done or countenanced in others – and no doubt much more.
Again, more’s the pity.
I’m a Biden Democrat. And I condemn is the strongest terms any former Biden voter who underhandedly deserts him now. He has taken bold decisive action, and should be praised and honored, not defamed. I lament those misguided, hypocritical Biden voters who can’t see the greatness and practical genius of our current president. Fie on such traitors.
You can declare yourself to be a grove of palm trees if you want. However, no one is obliged to accept any of your claims.
This is kind of like the trans people declaring themselves to be any sex that they choose, without fulfilling the proper physical and definitional requirements.
Gary, you have self-identified as an Arizona Democrat, and donated extensively to democrats. You worked hard to get Biden elected. You cite the same sources and authorities, using similar arguments to the democrats I work with. Just because you spent the $500 to become a Reagan-class member does not entitle you to be considered a Republican or have people like and admire you.
Remember, Benedict Arnold had a distinguished war record. Then he became a traitor.
It’s funny, I think you have lowered the status of Reagan around here by association.
Aaron Burr was actually involved in a plan to overthrow the nation.
I sometimes think Biden’s election was a plan to overthrow the nation, too. And Gary was involved. Just sayin’