A few quick thoughts on Mattis resignation. Typing on the go so forgive mistakes. First, letter is something. Criticism of an R president in particular for hurting allies and being blind about adversaries.... 1/
Also, yes people leave but resignation in protest, if we can call it that, is very rare. Presidents work hard to avoid. Lately Trump has...stopped with Mattis. JCS, Syria. etc. 2/
As I wrote earlier this week, cost of policies, even status quo consensus policies, about to go up. Possibly a lot. There are SO many openings now, and all those hearings will invite scrutiny. 3/
As @bindersab wrote, the Yemen vote showed even the Senate is ready to rebuke. Whoever takes this job should get ready for a lot of questions. That may surface audience-of-one type statements, of course, but not clear climate will let that go. 4/
Then again, incoming SASC and SFRC chairs...well I’ll let @JimGoldgeier explain. 5/
There are many dimensions to this but just struck by letter. Who knows what broke the camels back, maybe Syria or Afghanistan. 6/
But the letter is about who friends and foes are. To have a resignation publicly tied to a breach between the president and SecDef over that is up there, with Helsinki, as one of those “ok this is unprecedented” moments. 7/7
