A lonesome cowpuncher living under the open skies if he did not say similar words certainly would have thought them if approached by a reporter.
In his first extensive interview Tex Tillerson was asked why he did not bring the usual coterie of media people along with him on his trip to the Far East.
He answered: “I guess, what I’m told is that there’s this long tradition that the Secretary spends time on the plane with the press. I don’t know that I’ll do a lot of that. I’m just not … that’s not the way I tend to work. That’s not the way I tend to spend my time. I spend my time working on this airplane.”
Later he continued: “I’m not a big media press access person. I personally don’t need it. I understand it’s important to get the message of what we’re doing out, but I also think there’s only a purpose in getting the message out when there’s something to be done. And so we have a lot of work to do, and when we’re ready to talk about what we’re trying to do, I will be available to talk to people. But doing daily availability, I don’t have this appetite or hunger to be that, have a lot of things, have a lot of quotes in the paper or be more visible with the media.”
Near the end of the interview he said: “Look, I hope people in the media are, I don’t know how to explain it any better part of it is just the way my personal style is, but also, I’ve been very successful diplomatically for over 25 years. Done some really tough deals around the world with some really difficult governments and I’ve been successful because I was always able to respect their integrity and respect the fact that they have a population they have to take care of and the less I said about what we were trying to do in public, the easier it was for them to manage the outcome, and in the end we could be successful.” (my emphasis)
Reading that you have the desire to shout out: “Hey, Tex. You took a job in public service. You don’t represent Exxon anymore.”
A long tradition forget it, that’s not his style. “I’m just not … that’s not the way I tend to work. That’s not the way I tend to spend my time.” He seems not to understand he works for the people and not Exxon. He’s in a job where he is accountable to the people and not a board of directors. He is supposed to spend his time in a public office being accessible to the public. He works for us the American people.
As far the needs of the American people, you can also forget that. “I’m not a big media press access person. I personally don’t need it.” No one really cares what he needs, it is what the American people need and the job requires.
He has no clue that he is not Exxon president. “But doing daily availability, I don’t have this appetite or hunger to be that, have a lot of things, have a lot of quotes in the paper or be more visible with the media.” It seems he interested in doing things behind closed doors making deals in secret for profit.
He really seems oblivious that the media is there to enlighten the American people. He wants nothing to do with it as he did when he was dealing with enriching Exxon. He’s going to continue to operate as if he represents a corporation: “. . . it is just the way my personal style is, but also, I’ve been very successful diplomatically for over 25 years.”
And how did he do that? He kept the public in the dark. “I’ve been successful because I was always able to respect [that difficult governments] . . . have a population . . . and the less I said about what we were trying to do in public, the easier it was for them to manage the outcome, and in the end we could be successful.”
His goal is to do it the Exxon way: make deals that if disclosed to people would make them upset and the situation might get out of control.
Really: is this what we want in a Secretary of State? A guy who thinks of his personal convenience and makes deals that we will know nothing about. A guy who thinks like his boss that the bottom line is making money. A guy who thinks he has been successful in diplomacy because he could fill the pockets of government officials with money-making deals they wanted to hide while helping his company make profits.
Tex doesn’t sound like a public servant to me. He sounds more like a cowboy who has been out gazing at the moon ‘til he loses his senses. Let’s hope we don’t sell the Grand Canyon to China in exchange for a chain of Trump buildings and Exxon gas stations throughout China.
What of the comment that the Allied Veterans Board has non-veterans on it?
If the Chinese meetings went so well, why did the Chinese speculate that they may have to increase their nukes?
The most interesting comment from the hearing (besides the Patriots irritating “consistency of excellence”) was the puzzling fact that we have a president that attacks and belittles our traditional Western democratic allies and has nothing but high regard for Putin and his murderous oligarchy.
Hutch:
Better question: why are the veterans running the ST. Pat’s parade. I answer that tomorrow and propose a solution for their gay problem.
I did not know the Chinese are going to increase their nukes. That is not a good sign. I do know that some have said Tillerson totally caved to the Chinese which would not be true if they are going to ramp up their nuclear production. The real problem is no one knows what Tillerson did.
True, the real problem is we have shown ourselves to be an unreliable ally. That serves Putin’s purposes. He can now put more pressure on our former allies to undermine us even more. Trump’s America for Americans might leave us alone in a hostile world.
Diplomacy requires discretion. Tillerson is a discrete man. Expect things to get done. Public pronouncements will be made after the sausage has been stuffed. Strikes me as a sound way to do business.
On the other end of the spectrum are publicity whores. Women and men who it is dangerous to be between them and a running network camera. All too often the whores render up lies. The transparency is mostly a smoke screen. Good deals are missed because in old WWII jargon, “Loose lips sink ships”.
Publicity whores are not public servants they are self-seeking, self-serving sociopaths. Equating public service with narcissistic prancing belittles high government officialdom. A daily dose of entertaining mendacity is not why freedom of the press is valuable.
Conceding that we differ, one prefers Hilliary; one prefers Tillerson. A less personal rephrase: One prefers a whore; one prefers a diplomat.
TAdzio:
You didn’t get a diplomat you got the Trumpster the Superliar.
Gowdy just asked Comey “Can you assure the American people that leaks will be investigated?” Comey said, “I can’t.”
But he sure can “assure” us and confirm he’s investigating the Trump campaign, but not the Hillary campaign, for ties to Russia. (In fact, he’s been investigating the Trump campaign apparently since July.)
The Clintons and Podestas arguably have way more ties to Russia!
CNN does a Timeline of Trump’s ties to Russia. With a straight face, CNN reports Trump asked Russia to hack Hillary’s emails. (Remember the Joke: I hope Russia finds those 33,000 deleted emails?) This is what CNN considers “evidence” of collusion!
Bill:
You’ve gone full Monte over to the Russians. You think we should be chasing down leaks (which have been going on for all times and are difficult to uncover) rather than the Russian collusion in undermining an American election. Sure, let’s forget about the Russian interference and give them a pass. Let’s spend all the time looking for the impossible. That is the Repubiican nonsense which you then follow up with conflating talking to Russians and colluding with them.
First of all why would you investigate the Hillary campaign when the Russians were working to undermine it. You don’t suggest that the Hillary team was helping the Russians undermining their own campaign although Trump would probably make that suggestion if he thought of it. The issue is whether Trump colluded with Russians; no one has suggested Hillary colluded with them.
It is not ties to Russia it is colluding with Russia to undermine an American election. Let me repeat, it is not ties to Russia but working with the Russians to undermine the American election process. It seems odd that you cannot see the difference but seek to parrot what Trump tweets.
He tweeted today just as you first wrote: “The real story that Congress, the FBI and all others should be looking into is the leaking of Classified information. Must find leaker now!” Later, as what you have done, he tweeted: “What about all of the contact with the Clinton campaiagn and the Russians?”
AT least one can say you are a loyal follower.
Whether Trump was joking or not the Russians did hack Hillary and Podesta’s emails. That is beyond all doubt.
Big revelation by comey of the active investigation of Russia and the trump campaign, that statement lead me to believe they are sitting on something worth convicting people involved. As we are well aware the FBI does not set themselves up for embarrassment.
Jim:
They are investigating it because something gave them reason to do it. We don’t know what that is yet. No embarrassment to investigate and then clear. We’ll just have to wait to see what develops.
Rex is not a publicity hound. The two prior Secretaries of State were. They ingratiated themselves with the press to advance their higher political ambitions. Tillerson’s boss has cautioned him to be weary of the enemy of the people ( Fake News). Maybe he can recapture the American uranium that Hillary gave away. 2. What foreign country tried to influence our election? Russia? Former CIA boss and Hillary supporter Mike Morrel said there is no fire there . Smoke maybe but no substance. Clapper said the same thing. The Russian connection was a smear the Clinton supporters invented to injure the Trump campaign. It was total nonsense. However there may be evidence that the Brits were aiding Hillary. The former MI6 agent produces the fake dossier claiming a Russian connection. A British Ambassador vouches for the MI6 guy’s credibility and informs McCain about it. Judge Neapolitano indicates three sources told him British Intel ( GCHQ) spied on the Trump campaign and passed the info onto the Obama Administration. It looks like Obama, Hillary and the Brits were in cahoots to spy on Trump. Sessions has to get to the bottom of this. Donna Brazile has come clean. It is about time for the Brits to.
NC:
The review of Tillerson’s statements made in the press conference in China is that he was parroting China’s talking points. Maybe that’s why he is afraid the American media might find out he is really dealing with China for a chain of Trump hotels and Exxon Gas stations in exchange for China getting all the islands in the South China Sea.
As far as fake press goes what could be worse than Fox News with Judge Neopolitano having three sources tell him that Obama hired the British to tap Trump tower. You’ve changed the issue. It wasn’t that the GCHQ passed the information on to Obama. Neopolitano stated: “Citing three unnamed sources, he said that Britain’s top spy agency had wiretapped Mr. Trump on behalf of President Barack Obama during last year’s campaign.”
Deal with the facts. Fox news put out a story that Obama rather than using US intelligence somehow got the British to wire tap Trump. It was all rot as the Brits and GCHQ have said.
Stop going back over the issue of Russia interfering with the American election. That is a foregone conclusion by all our intelligence agencies. What remains open is whether Trump colluded with the Russians and that is what the FBI investigation is about.
By the way Clapper refined his statement saying he does not know what evidence of Russian collusion may have been uncovered since he left office in January 20. He said nothing about it being a smear as you seem to imply.
I don’t understand you desire to give the Russians a pass on their attempt to interfere with the American democratic process. It really is strange how many Republicans believe Putin more than other Americans.
Sounds like he is into results, not spectacle, spin, and spendthrift global
skylarking like Kerry and Hillarity. He is hereby ” Exxonerated.”
Tillerson manning the tiller! We are in dangerous shoals internationally . Sail on ” Cowboy. ” 🙂
Brilliant!
If he were to shut down the media in a YUGE way, that would be one thing. But all he’s doing, arguably, is getting to work.
After all, he’s no political veteran who is accustomed to “media, media everywhere.” That’s a good thing.
Lots of confirmation bias in your nevertheless-enjoyable Trump posts.
Matt:
As usual, we disagree:
First of all, today’s media does not simply “inform”; sadly too often it has assumed the role of waging jihad against the Trump’s Administration in particular and Traditionalists in general. Moreover, Spicer conducts daily briefings.
Secondly, Tillerson sounds like a man who is discrete!
He said he’ll inform the public when there’s news. Good! I guarantee we’ll be hearing from the State Department frequently, and with more candor than we got from Hillary. At least Tillerson doesn’t have a private server!
Funny, how his words indicating moderation, temperance and discretion, are twisted into sinister motives, malevolent money making schemes. You think he became Secretary of State, not to Serve, but to Steal? Is that why Hillary and Bill went from hillbilly-status to being worth hundreds of millions of dollars? Or do only Republicans enter public office to steal?
But, we’ve seen this type of towering illogic before. You know if the Veterans don’t want gay-flags in their parade, they must be anti-gay, and if they don’t want Russian flags in their parade, they must be anti-Russian. The Vets say all folks (Russian-Americans, gays) are welcome to march, but the Vets alone decide what banners are flown.
Speaking of the Parade, remember you wrote that everyone brave enough to march should be allowed to march? You don’t mean that. How about the Muslim Brotherhood, the KKK, the NAZIs, the Black Panthers? How about forcing Boston’s Greek Independence Day Parade to include Turkish flags and Gay-pride flags?
At lease we agree that Forced Speech is bad: (I look at Mayor Walsh’s actions as abuse of State Power: calling for boycotts, threatening to pull the permit, yelling at parade organizers, cursing parade organizers (he apologized for that), cutting the parade route in half in 2016 (not because of snow), demanding one week before the 2016 Parade that the Vets provide a $2 million Insurance Policy, etc.) Mayor Walsh, acting like a union thug, threatened, browbeat and bullied the Vets into submission, and forced them to alter their speech. Too bad. (See August 2016 federal suit brought by the Allied War Veterans against the City of Boston, Mayor and Police Commissioner for intimidation and threats violating their civil and constitutional rights.)
You wrote that anyone who “slights gays” should be treated with “opprobrium”: how about people who slight Trump supporters, or slight WASPs, or slight Conservatives, or slight the President and his Cabinet?
I enjoy your daily posts, even when they attack people and positions which I support. That’s what free speech is all about.
Paraphrasing Khalid: More power to the Socratic dialectic and Hegelian dialectic.
More power to free speech! More power to diversity of expression!
Bill:
1. Spicer is perhaps the greatest liar who ever gave presidential press conferences. For instance he pushed the Brits spying on Trump story and still believe Obama spied on him against all evidence.
2. The private server was a nonsense issue. You don’t know whether Tillerson has one or not. You do know he used an alias when CEO at EXXON.
3. We’ve yet to see what Tillerson will do but the people who reviewed his press conference with Xi suggested he gave the house away to the Chinese. I learned that after I talked about the chain of Exxon stations.
4.I think I have an article coming up on St. Patrick’s parade tomorrow. Using the bully pulpit of the mayor’s office is what mayor’s are supposed to do. No one made the veterans cave except themselves. Too bad they did not have the courage to stand up for what they believed.
5. I did not write anyone who slights gays should be treated with opprobrium. I wrote “it is difficult to get around the idea that the parade organizers are anti-gay They have a right to be that in this country but the must accept the opprobrium that come with holding such a position.”
6. I too appreciate and enjoy your comments.
Matt:
I stand by my positions, of course. You did write that the Vets’ refusal to display the gay-pride flag merited “opprobrium” and went on to talk about “slights” against gays.
You did write that slights against gays are slights against all of us: “slights against them are slights against all of us.”
And my retort was: Are slights against WASPs slights against all of us? Who is “all of us?” Are slights against Texans, cowboys, Trump-supporters slights against all of us? Are some animals more equal than other animals?
Is the refusal to display any flag an “opprobrium” or only gay-pride flags?
Can’t we have traditional parades without gay-pride signs?
Bill:
I expect you to stand by your position but it is a minority one. Most people have formed the opinion that the Veterans who run the St. Patrick’s Day parade are anti-gay and have been trying to promote that position.
The discovery of corruption from Tillerson is bith predictable and inevitable. Simply a matter of time and good newspaper research.