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March 1, 2018

Ben Rhodes launches a shadow National Security Council

By Monica Showalter

So what's Ben Rhodes been up to these days?  His unmaskings and leaks are over, he doesn't have Seb Gorka to lie about, and his failures as a national security official have pretty well been exposed.

I kid you not: he hasn't been idle.

His latest scheme is launching a "shadow" National Security Council, called "National Security Action," co-chairing the operation with Jake Sullivan.  Showing that he was always the one running things in the Obama White House, he's herded a whole slew of top Obama-era national security officials, including former national security adviser Susan Rice, former national security adviser Tom Donilon, former United Nations ambassador Samantha Power, and socialist former Defense Department official Rosa Brooks, into his little shadow operation. As if these people somehow had a divine right to control national security and President Trump's current officials are somehow illegitimate. And this, despite his creative writing major, his past career as a failed novelist, and his lack of national security experience, he's now their leader.  He's also thrown in Ben Wikler, director of MoveOn.org, which gives a whiff just how political and dirty tricks-oriented this "national security" operation is going to be.  Creepy, indeed.

Shadow cabinets are hardly an American tradition – they are British – but Rhodes, possibly in consultation with a guy like Marxist U.K. Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn, probably learned the use of them as a counter-cabinet in the wings in the event of a fall of the existing government, which happens a lot in parliamentary systems.  No doubt, Rhodes expects something like that to happen here, too, given that this is the left-wing "narrative."

Another purpose of such an operation is to serve as a ready-made foreign policy team, no matter which Democrat is elected – hence the group's statement that it will be "progressive" but not endorse any candidates.  In other words, the name of the Democrat who wins doesn't matter; they just want to retake power again, like the glory days.

But as Rhodes's site says, they are hardly going to remain passive in the meantime.  Rhodes, who's a smear artist with spectacular ties to the media (his brother David Rhodes runs CBS), says he plans to leak things to the press and keep the drumbeat in the press pounding about Trump no matter what he does.

Here's what he tweeted:

And he retweeted this:

Restoring credibility?  What planet does he live on?  His last administration bowed to Iran's mullahs and gave them cash; initiated one-way love relations with the Castro government of Cuba, which, to start, has resulted in many injured U.S. diplomats from that snake pit; and spread apologies worldwide.  Rhodes, after all, wrote President Obama's famous apology speech in Cairo, which left the Middle East a hellhole.  He should be so proud of himself – and unfortunately, he is.

At a minimum, we now know what he's up to and can expect a new round of smears, media manipulation, Obama "narratives," and dirty tricks, which are all Rhodes specialties.  That so many officials have joined him, under his umbrella, kind of shows you how pathetic they are, given that they have credentials and he doesn't.  What it shows above all is how hungry for retaking power they really are.

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