Nikki Haley Might Just Want to Escape Unscathed. Or Maybe There's a Plot Afoot.
If you're keeping score at home, the number of putative "adults" in the White House is down to Secretary of Defense James Mattis and who he sees in the mirror every morning. Nikki Haley, our ambassador to the United Nations, went to the White House and resigned. The idea of human training wheels for the president* always was pretty hilarious, but it faded long ago into the great fog of crazy that envelops any news out of this administration* almost instantly. Haley, however, leaves Camp Runamuck with a lot more chips on the table than anyone else.
First of all, by any standard, but especially by the standard set by this administration*, Haley is leaving relatively unscathed. She is not being pursued by the law, nor has she been accused of playing fast and loose with the public fisc, although there are rumors flying around about the use of a local South Carolina plutocrat's private airplane. (This seems to be endemic to this president*'s Cabinet members.) Second, it wouldn't be unreasonable for her to want to go home, retool, make some money in the private sector, and plot out her next political move. None of which, of course, obligates us to avoid wild speculation.
For example, suppose that, after the midterms, the president* forces the resignation of Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. He then appoints loyal palace servant Lindsey Graham to replace Sessions, and then South Carolina governor Henry McMaster appoints Haley to replace Graham in the Senate. After all, it was McMaster, who fairly leaped aboard the Trump Train early, who recommended Haley. She reluctantly clambered aboard the speeding caboose for a job at Camp Runamuck, largely, it was said, to get her out of the state. As I said, wild speculation, but the precipitous resignation a month before what could be catastrophic midterm elections could just be Haley's innate political shrewdness driving her toward the lifeboats.
In any event, Haley was conspicuously vague about her reasons for leaving. She allowed the president* to spin a tale about Haley's telling him that she wanted to stay for two years and then "take a little break," which may or may not be true. From CNN:
Haley said "it has been an honor of a lifetime" serving as UN ambassador, but that it was time to depart the administration. "There's no personal reason," she said, explaining her rationale for departing. "It's very important for government officials to understand when it's time to step aside." "I want to make sure this administration, this president, has the strongest person to fight," she said. She praised Trump's foreign policy, saying "the US is respected." "Countries may not like what we do, but they respect what we do," she said.
Yeah, whatever. (She wants to quit, now, so that the administration* can find the "strongest person to fight"? That doesn't make any sense.) Anyway, if she took the job with the administration* to burnish her resume for a future run at bigger things, she's managed to keep that resume intact and smelling like a rose. Very few people are going to leave this administration* with their political futures so uninfected. She may have played the president* more slickly even than Kim Jong-un.
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