Here is one little piece from the article that those who know how things work might quibble with “protecting and coddling” 40 Obama holdovers — almost one-sixth of the NSC staff — who are plainly out to sabotage the Trump agenda
Now a large part of the NSC staff are not any administration's "holdovers." They are career employees from other agencies temporarily assigned to the NSC because they bring certain professional knowledge and skills. They can come from Defense, State, the Intelligence Community, etc. Usually they are not there for political reasons or political allegiances and such allegiances generally are not strong anyway.
So just a broad brush smear of the NSC staff is a bit of a problem, and you need to look at it individual by individual.
I am not saying the case cannot be made or that the NSC was under Obama or now under McMaster is a paragon of rectitude, efficiency and so forth, because I have no special knowledge of what the staff individually think, what they are telling McMaster and what McMaster is telling the president. I am just saying that these continual hit pieces are smears and largely unsubstantiated allegation. A lot of it misunderstands what the actual role of the NSC is. And "sources say" is not a very solid basis for the indictment either.
And another point - I would guess that McMaster will cross Mattis or Kelly exactly once and that will be the end of him. Since he is still there I guess that hasn't happened, and if it hasn't happened that is the dog that didn't bark.
Exactly right. All “Obama holdovers” are not political appointees but career bureaucrats who were there under Bush, etc.
You cannot just fire them. Firing a government non-political appointee is very, very difficult, as Milton Friedman once showed in which a BAD secretary went through almost 100 steps before they could actually terminate her. There is no evidence that these people are either incompetent or in any way obstructing Trump.
Second, it amazes me that George Washington seemed to manage just fine with Thomas Jefferson and Alexander Hamilton-—exactly as far apart as Bannon & McMaster-—in his administration, and Lincoln worked with 5-6 cabinet appointees who strongly disliked him and all thought they were smarter than him. Yet both were terrifically successful. And Trump somehow isn’t capable of getting advice that isn’t 100% MAGA? He can’t deal with it? Give me a break.