PERSONIFIES

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates (Maybe) Personifies An Honor Student At "The J. Edgar Hoover School of Political Permanence"

J. Edgar Hoover was the first Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).  He was originally appointed to head the fledgling FBI in the 1930s by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  

Now as we all know, U.S. Presidential Administrations come and go every 4-8 years as do each Administration's respective political appointees.  J. Edgar Hoover, however,  was an unusual political appointee.  He somehow managed to stay on as FBI Director from one administration to the next -- Democrat to Democrat to Republican to Democratic to Democrat to Republican -- clear up to 1972!  That doesn't happen every day in U.S. National Politics; actually, it doesn't happen ever, generally.

Now, certainly the fact that Mr. Hoover essentially built the FBI meant a new President could probably argue: "hey, J. Edgar Hoover built "The Bureau" so he probably best new how to run it;  don't 'fix' what isn't broken, my father always said."  

And of course we out here in the general public could probably also speculate that -- by virtue of his position and administrative resources -- Hoover perhaps was privy to information on each new President and used said information to maintain his position as FBI Director from one Presidential Administration to the next.  We might also speculate that perhaps certain (little-discussed) domestic security and espionage threats existed during Mr. Hoover's Cold War-era tenure such that a patriotic FBI director had no other reasonable choice but to keep his position.   

It doesn't really matter. But the point is that Mr. Hoover was a Presidential Appointee never displaced by the ebb and flow of the Presidential election cycle.    

Now in light of Hoover, lets examine the work-history of current Defense Secretary, Robert M. Gates over the last few years.  

Secretary Gates was appointed by Republican President George W. Bush in 2006 to replace outgoing Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld.    In November 2008, National Elections were held and Democrat Barack Obama was elected as President of the United States.  

Naturally, in 2009 the new U.S. President would start to fill his executive branch with political appointees including a new Secretary of Defense.  But for the first time in history, the person holding the office of Secretary of Defense -- Robert M. Gates -- didn't get replaced when the Party in control of the White House changed from Republican to Democrat (or vice versa)!  

Did Secretary Gates take a few (hypothesized) "cues" from the administration-impervious career of former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover?  Was Gates perhaps an "Honor Student" at the little-heralded "J. Edgar Hoover School of Political Permanence?"  Or is the military situation currently confronting the U.S. of such a delicate and/or threatening nature to national security that consistent leadership of the Department of Defense is required?

Who knows on all accounts.  

"An Argentinian Woman" Personifies "The-Reason-State-Side-Dudes-Who-Should-Know-Better-Lose-All-Common-Sense"

Personifies.com is three in a row with women as post topics.  But the ladies are the ones making most of the interesting news so we'll roll with it.

We have long had our suspicions about the seductive powers of the women from Argentina.  

Once one has you in her arms, you start to think you are 10ft tall, possessor of supernatural powers over time and space and a walking ATM machine with dibs on all the cash at Goldman Sachs.  

First we hear of the financial misfortunes of Edmund L. Andrews, Economics Reporter for the NY Times. This is a guy who knows the ins-and-outs of finance. 

However,  he gets remarried to an old flame.  Next thing you know, Andrew's personal finances are on the ropes and his recently purchased house is in foreclosure.  

How could this happen to one so knowledgeable about financial affairs, one who reported on the Federal Reserve?  Did his old flame have something to do with it?  Who was she, where was she from?  Oh, Argentina...

Then we hear recent news: Republican Governor of South Carolina, Marc Sandford has gone missing for 5 days.  His family doesn't know where he is and even his security detail doesn't know where he is. 

Sanford is a guy whom millions in South Carolina kind of have a reason to keep track of.  He, however, apparently decided to take an unannounced trip out of state to see a certain love interest in...you guessed it...Argentina.  

So we start to see good reason to conclude that "An 

Argentinian Woman" Personifies "The-Reason-State-

Side-Dudes-Who-Should-Know-Better-Lose-All-

Common-Sense."

Carrie Prejean Personifies Oscillation

To the general public, it looks like (now dethroned) Ms. California, Carrie Prejean personifies "oscillation" or "the state of being moved to and fro or back and forth," in this case,  like a "piece" on a figurative "game-board."  

First, Carrie PreJean wins Ms. California.  So, she begins at the "Ms.-California-Position" on the "board," so to speak.  Then she competes at the Ms. USA contest and the whole deal with Perez Hilton happens etc.  She doesn't win Ms. USA, but she's still on the "board's" "Ms. California-Position"

Suddenly some nice "arm-bikini" photos of Prejean decide to come-up-for-air.  Carrie Prejean finds herself  subsequently "moved" to a "Maybe-Not-Miss-California-Position" on the "board." 

Ms. USA Pageant Co-Owner, Donald Trump, however, reviews the Prejean situation and her contract, photos, and statements. After his "due diligence, Trump says -- after justifying his reasoning -- that Carrie Prejean may keep her title as this year's Ms. California.  So, Prejean finds herself "moved" from "Maybe-Not" back to her original "Ms.California-Position." 

Then, unexpectedly, two days ago, Donald Trump announces that he has fired Ms. Prejean as Ms. California 2009.   As such Prejean finds herself moved from the "Ms.-California-Position," over the "Maybe-Not-Ms. California Position" and all the way to the "Dethroned-Ms-California" Position.    

Will Prejean find herself moved back to the Ms. California position?   Nah, but I suspect that her lawyer will bluff her likely complaint up to trial  even though her case doesn't exactly look bomb-proof.  Prejean will probably find herself moved to an "Out-of-Court-Settlement-Position" that identically replaces the "Ms.-California-Position" on the figurative game board.   

 

Sonia Sotomayor Personifies Grace

She's a Federal Appeals Court Justice nominated by the Obama Administration to fill a recently opened seat on the U.S. Supreme Court. 

For 44 years, she has had to juggle the heavy, day-to-day challenges involved with managing her own Type 1 Diabetic condition (Something this blogger knows a thing or two about having himself been a Type 1 Diabetic for 19 years, since 1990).   

Are her aforementioned "challenges" planning to "take-a-vacation" just because Sotomayer must traipse the veritable miles of U.S. Senate Office Building hallways on her path to her confirmation hearing?  Yeah right.  

And to top all this off, Sotomayor -- who's obviously hugely busy during the confirmation process run-up -- falls in NYC on June 8th and ends up fracturing her leg!  

Now she is forced to hit the Senate Halls wearing a cast and crutches, too (I can only hope that the White House and U.S. Senate might now arrange a wheel-chair to convey her throughout the U.S. Senate Office Buildings and to the Senate Floor).  

Despite these pressures, though, have we seen Sotomayor bail on the confirmation process or otherwise asked for a postponement?  No way, she's just grinned and born it.

So, we say that Sonia Sotomayor Personifies "Grace" -- a "beauty of manner and action"  that, in this case, defies both the seemingly peerless pressures of the confirmation process and the unusual physical hardships she must face.