Fox News reports that some Democrats are joining the calls for Janet “The System Worked” Napolitano to step down following the failed Christmas day terrorist attack, but, as Tom Maguire writes, the Washington Post’s David Broder is having none of it:
Wapo editors might want to ask whether the system is working – their own David Broder tells us that Janet Napolitano has long been one of his favorite politicians and wonders whether she will run for President some day. No, seriously:
It came as no surprise to anyone who knows her that Napolitano handled the [attempted bombing over Detroit] and its aftermath with aplomb. In the years I have known her, she has managed every challenge that has come her way with the same calm command that she showed in this instance. If there is anyone in the administration who embodies President Obama’s preference for quiet competence with “no drama,” it is Janet Napolitano….She is being criticized for saying “the system worked,” but her part of the response system did work.
The response system worked? That is good to know, but of course we might be saying that even if the bomb had detonated and first responders had done yeoman work using snow shovels to get the bodies off the streets. The system is working even better when it prevents attacks, not responds to them.
Her instinct was to run down the center [in her first run for governor], and she was confident enough of her positions that she did not agonize over them. What struck me most forcibly at that first meeting was her lack of guardedness. We quickly found ourselves talking as if we had known each other for years, and her comments were as candid as they were shrewd.She soon became one of my favorite pols in either party.
Great to know. Broder closes with the push for 2012, or maybe 2016:
The Obama Cabinet is filled with talents, but many of the stars are of an age or temperament unlikely to turn them into successor candidates. Napolitano will face many substantive tests — not just in dealing with terrorism but in playing an important role in immigration reform — before she is a candidate for anything. But her potential is almost unlimited.
Her potential is unlimited? I see “Dancing With The Stars” or perhaps she will regale us from a corner perch on “The Hollywood Squares”.
It sounds like Broder is channeling Thomas Friedman’s April 25, 2000 column, which similarly championed an even more disastrous leftwing distaff bureaucrat with an identical forename to the highest office of the land, with the hopes of wreaking maximum havoc on the American people.
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