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In what is sure to be a controversial move, President-Elect Barack Obama has announced that he will nominate Chicago-area activist Bill Ayers to be Secretary of Homeland Security in his new administration. Ayers, who became a lightning rod for right-wing criticism of Obama during the campaign, said that he was “honored and humbled” by his appointment.
Although he was never convicted of a crime, Ayers has admitted that, as a member of the radical Weathermen splinter group of the Students for a Democratic Society, he built and detonated a number of bombs during the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, after spending many years as a fugitive, Ayers has become a respected educator and community leader in Chicago. He is currently a professor at the University of Illinois.
In naming Mr. Ayers to the post, Senator Obama was careful to repeat that he knew the other man only slightly, having encountered him from time to time at various political events in Chicago. But the prospect of naming an actual former terrorist to the job of hunting terrorists and preventing terrorism proved irresistible, especially for an administration determined to make a clear break with inside-the-Beltway business-as-usual.
In a prepared statement, Senator Obama said, “There’s an old saying that ‘it takes a thief to catch a thief.’ If we are going to defeat the terrorists, we have to understand how they think and no one can do that better than Bill Ayers.”
The Department of Homeland Security is the third largest Cabinet Department in the Federal Government. In addition to guarding against terrorism on domestic soil, DHS, as it is known, is also responsible for protecting our borders and enforcing immigration policy and for responding to natural disasters. An Obama Transition Team insider conceded that Ayers would “probably be just terrible” at these other tasks but said that “he’s so good on terrorism, it’s worth it.”
Independent and academic observers have arrived at a consensus in recent months that the Department of Homeland Security is something of a unwieldy hodgepodge, created in haste in the wake of 9-11, and ripe for a reorganization. The appointment of a head with a narrow focus on only part of its mission could indicate that President-Elect Obama intends to break up the Department sooner rather than later.
One Bush Administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Ayers was a calculated “outside the box” choice intended to send a message that there was a new sheriff in town. But, he added, this sort of posturing has become something of a ritual when the presidency changes hands between parties. “I give him 6 months,” the official said. “After that, he’ll be replaced by a senior military officer, a career civil servant, or a former top legislator, which could be a mistake considering he’s not the sort of guy you want to
p— off.”
