Well, this is depressing:MIAMI - The Navy lawyer who led a successful Supreme Court challenge of the Bush administration’s military tribunals for detainees at Guantanamo Bay has been passed over for promotion and will have to leave the military, The Miami Herald reported Sunday.So, just to recap: The Navy assigned Swift to represent Hamdan, and to do so to the best of his ability. Swift did so, and, moreover, did so well that he actually managed to win the case for his client. In return for doing as he was ordered, in return for representing his client's interests -- and, in so doing, proving that our freedoms are more than a soundbite and a slogan, but are in fact actual vital principles that we live by even when they're inconvenient -- Swift is being forced out of the military. Fantastic.
Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift, 44, will retire in March or April under the military’s “up or out” promotion system. Swift said last week he was notified he would not be promoted to commander.
He said the notification came about two weeks after the Supreme Court sided with him and against the White House in the case involving Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who was Osama bin Laden’s driver. ...
Swift’s supervisor said he served with distinction. “Charlie has obviously done an exceptional job, a really extraordinary job,” said Marine Col. Dwight Sullivan, the Pentagon’s chief defense counsel for Military Commissions. He added it was “quite a coincidence” that Swift was passed over for a promotion “within two weeks of the Supreme Court opinion.”
Washington, D.C., attorney Eugene Fidell, president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said Swift was “a no-brainer for promotion.” Swift joins many other distinguished Navy officers over the years who have seen their careers end prematurely, Fidell said.
“He brought real credit to the Navy,” Fidell said. “It’s too bad that it’s unrequited love.”
Once again, it's clear that if you're at all skilled at your job, if you're able to offer prescient advice and capable of independent thought, if you do your job tirelessly and thoroughly, well, sorry, the Bush administration wants nothing to do with you.
Nope. All that matters is blind loyalty to Dear Leader. Completely clueless? Not a problem. So bad at your job that everyone's calling for your resignation? No worries. Tragically incompetent? Get ready for a Presidential Medal of Freedom!
Lordy, I hope the Democrats can take back the House this fall and start restoring some oversight to our government. It's looking good, but we've still got to overcome the GOP's get-out-the-vote machine and their tremendous cash advantage. If you haven't already, please volunteer some of your time and money for a local candidate.
5 comments:
Well done, OM. Incredible, this guy probably would've gotten a promotion and a few medals if he'd lost the case.
You forgot to mention another key to republican success: being the child of someone who can give it all to you, such as crazy Curt Weldon and his daughter.
Good point. Don't forget the children of William Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, Gen. Myers, Frank Murkowski, Dick Cheney, and, of course, George H. W. Bush. None of them would be anywhere without their parents.
I'm starting to think we should call the GOP the Daddy Party because so many of their leaders got to power because of dear old dad.
But, TJ, his own supervisor, who indeed participates in a promotional panel for field-grade and above officers, was surprised and skeptical towards the pass-over. Skepticism from a guy not only familiar with the process but an actual part of it says a lot in support of the conspiracy.
And one more thing, from Majikthise:
According to this chart, 80% of the lieutenant commanders in the Navy who are eligible for promotion to commander are promoted. Hence the "up or out" rule--if you're in the bottom 20% you presumably don't have what it takes. According to the same page, the Secretary of Defense convenes the promotion panels for higher level officers. That would be Donald Rumsfeld of Hamdan v. Rumsfeld fame.
Maybe competency is part of "don't ask, don't tell"?
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