Chas Freeman Jr. Backs Out as National Intelligence Chairman

I have stopped counting how many of President Obama's picks for a position in his administration have backed out. I can't remember so much drama surrounding potential appointees, but I was never so interested in each pick in any administration as I am this time around. Well, the latest absconder really didn't deserve the appointment in the first place. Charles W. Freeman Jr., was being strongly considered to chair President Obama's National Intelligence Council. Thank God he decided to walk away as the criticisms on Capitol Hill grew more acrimonious.

For those of you who care, and you should, Freeman was the former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and he had been praised by allies and by the director of national intelligence, Dennis Blair, as a brilliant, iconoclastic analyst. The problem is that critics have lambasted him as being too hard on Israel and too soft on China, and blasted him for taking funding from Saudi royals. Yep, he was in bed with the Saudis and was way too comfy.

Freeman “requested that his selection to be Chairman of the National Intelligence Council not proceed,” Blair’s office said in a statement. “Director Blair accepted Ambassador Freeman’s decision with regret.”

I guess Freeman decided to back out after Sen. Joe "Judas" Lieberman grilled Blair at a Senate Armed Service Committee hearing Tuesday. Lieberman cited his “concern” about “statements that [Freeman] has made that appear either to be inclined to lean against Israel or too much in favor of China.”

What really stuck in Lieberman's throat was the fact that, Freeman has described “Israeli violence against Palestinians” as a key barrier to Mideast peace, and referred to violence in Tibet last year — widely seen in the U.S. as a revolt against Chinese occupation — as a “race riot.”

If the truth be told, Charles Freeman Jr. was simply not worth the headache for the Obama Administration. Folks, can we get it together? It's high time everyone on the Obama team was on the same wavelength and pretty much in place.