Via Patrick Barry, this from Spencer Ackerman‘s review of Mitt Romney‘s new book is truly bizarre:
The concept of diplomacy is completely foreign to Romney. He dismisses the State Department as “assistant secretaries and… bureaucrats” and proposes designating regional relations to “one individual” who would become a “presidential envoy or the ambassador from CENTCOM or any of the other regional military commands.” Such an individual would “encourage people and politicians to adopt and abide by the principles of liberal democracy,” something that “would be ideal if other allied nations created similar regional positions, and if we coordinated our efforts with theirs.”
Why stop at ceding the creation of American foreign policy to unelected military officials? Congress is really slow and disorganized. Why not simply replace the legislature with CENTCOM? The Supreme Court keeps churning out all these 5-4 decisions, and it does so at a snail’s pace. Why not just replace the nine justices with the infinite wisdom of CENTCOM? Let’s stop tinkering around the edges here already. You know what, I think Mitt Romney may have just stumbled on the solution to our electoral college problem. Naturally, all of this will make the process of “abiding by the principles of liberal democracy” and encouraging others to do so more streamlined.
The only thing that I find comforting here is that I doubt Romney has even read his own book.
— A. Serwer
