Lawfare‘s Benjamin Wittes and Susan Hennessey checked their email bag – and came up with a doozy:
We received this morning an extraordinary message from a group of Foreign Service officers. …
Writing for a small group of three other colleagues, this individual begins by noting Lawfare’s prior “advice for civil servants about the ethics of service under the Trump administration” and goes on to seek out ethical advice about how to best handle certain specific concerns facing Foreign Service officers. Namely, this group is worried that the rollout of the executive order on immigration—both the initial order and the forthcoming substitution—is taking place without consideration of important, available data.
Turns out that the Foreign Service officers are worried that these Executive Orders are being crafted without regard to, ummm, the facts, which are available in a variety of government databases, but are apparently not being consulted. Benjamin and Susan’s observation?
There’s a lot to talk about with regard to the specific questions above, but it is worth pausing to note as an initial matter the mere fact that a group of junior Foreign Service officers is currently put in the position wherein they are even contemplating whether they have an obligation to reinforce the interagency process with respect to the Justice Department. This fact reflects the the [sic] failure so far of the actual interagency process to function—and the failure of the White House to conduct interagency consultation processes with even minimal integrity.
Amateur hour has turned into, what, amateur month?
And not to leave you on tenterhooks, they advised the Foreign Service officers that it’s the responsibility of the Administration to seek out facts. To summarize their lengthy reply, the Foreign Service officers are not obligated to jam the important facts up Bannon’s ass. It’s his responsibility, as an adult, to seek out all relevant facts before writing Executive Orders.
The impression you get is of a group that’s trying to run a government without planning, just by following some ideological principles IF you’re an aide, and if your Trump it’s just the flavor of the day, while trying to keep those campaign promises that are perceived as being important. By contrast, you can be certain that Clinton would have had respectable, capable people ready to go, plans in place for implementing important policies, and we’d continue to be the leader of the world.
Not its stand-up comedian.
