2017 May 6^th

We have heard much about this administration’s accomplishments over their 100 days in office. This is particularly true for the last 24 hours when they managed to get a health care bill through the house, not passed mind you, just through the house.

Quite apart from health care, President Trump must concern himself with other things; many administrative appointments have not been made. This administration has blamed that on the Democrat’s reluctance to approve the president’s selection, but that is not true. (We are getting used to utterances from the administration that aren’t true. Try Speaker Ryan’s insistence that health insurance will be cheaper under his AHCA.)

The presidential appointments log is only slowly gaining ground and in some areas it is falling behind. We do have a Secretary of Defense, General Mattis, whom all comers seem to admire. Then there is the Secretary of the Navy. Well, no there isn’t a Secretary of the Navy. We had one but he quit and no replacement has been named.

Trump had appointed a Secretary of the Army but that fine fellow withdrew. It seems he got into a fistfight at a horse auction and what with that, and some curious business dealings, he withdrew his name.

Now Trump has nominated a new guy for secretary of the army. Mark Green is a graduate of West Point and that is surely a good start. Then he is also a physician, a graduate of Wright State University’s medical school. He served as an emergency physician in the army and  attended Saddam Hussein. What could go wrong? Actually, quite a lot. Mr. Green has now withdrawn his name and the Trump administration is now back to square one trying to find a secretary of the army.

It seems that Dr. Green has some very antique opinions about the LBGTQ community’s mental health. Back in 1974 the DSM, the diagnostic and statistical manual of the American Psychiatric Association listed homosexuality as a disorder and the LBGTQ community decided that they had had enough of being put down, so they rebelled.  The psychiatrists very quickly discovered new evidence indicating that being gay etc. was not a disorder after all and the next edition of the DSM did not so list those with an alternative sexual orientation.

Dr. Green did not keep up. He is on record as claiming, even now, that homosexuality is a mental disorder. He is very opposed to gay marriage and rejects SCOTUS rulings in that area and he absolutely rejects the notion of bathrooms sorted on the basis of any other than a chromosomal distinction. Dr. Green, perhaps with help, has come to realize that he is not a good fit for secretary of the army and so he has withdrawn.

Now General Mattis, Secretary of Defense, has had a secretary of the Navy withdraw and two secretaries of the Army withdraw. In the case of Green, there were objections from Senator McCain, the chair of Armed Services Committee. Why can’t Mattis and McCain get together and select appropriate people for Secretaries of the Army and the Navy. It is perfectly obvious that the Trump White House can’t do the job.

Maybe fewer celebratory beer parties and more careful vetting of senior appointments would be helpful.