McCain: Hillary Would Make Good Defense Secretary

I’ve got it from a highly reliable source that Senator John McCain said on the Tonight Show this week that Senator Hillary Clinton would make a good Secretary of Defense. McCain was apparently on the show Monday the 18th, but I can’t find any reference to this on Google, GoogleNews, or YahooNews. Nor can I find a transcript of the show.

Is this a misunderstanding on the part of my source or is this a rather bizarre statement that somehow stayed off the radar screen owing to the SCOTUS and Karl Rove stories?

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James Joyner
About James Joyner
James Joyner is Professor and Department Head of Security Studies at Marine Corps University's Command and Staff College. He's a former Army officer and Desert Storm veteran. Views expressed here are his own. Follow James on Twitter @DrJJoyner.

Comments

  1. Richard Gardner says:

    Hillary Clinton is on the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC), so she has a better handle on current Defense topics than most Senators who are not on the Committee (24 are on the SASC).
    However, SecDef? Why not Ted Kennedy or Liz Dole? Maybe McCain is wanting the job himself.

  2. Michael says:

    On the other hand, if McCain did say this, the subtext may be “good SecDef as opposed to president”, a job he’d prefer to have himself. McCain is certainly savvy enough to hand someone a compliment while simultaneously framing that person as less than Oval Office material, isn’t he?

  3. antimedia says:

    He said it. I watched the show. But my impression was that he was trying to be funny. He tried to make several jokes during his time in the spotlight, none of which were particularly funny.

  4. Zsa Zsa says:

    He could be right?…I remember hearing something about Hillary throwing ash trays at her husband during their stay in the White House! Maybe he is thinking she could throw a hand grenade or two on the front line???? Who knows?

  5. RiverRat says:

    I don’t give a damn what committee the WW of the WW has weasled her way onto. This woman is, at heart, the most anti-military member of the Senate. McCain must have the shortest memory on effing planet.

  6. jdsgjn says:

    McCain must have the shortest memory on effing planet.

    Remember that McCain experienced mental illness as a result of his confinement in ‘Nam. He also conceived a child out of wedlock with an Asian women and his wife is a drug addict.

    So, his Tonight Show comments should not be particularly surprising.