Victor Hanson writes (via Real Clear Politics) that it may be better to stroke the egos of such potential critics by bringing them on board for consultations:
We must never forget age-old considerations such as pride, honor and status. Washington is a Darwinian place where the ambitious arrive, leaving friends, family and birthplace behind to calibrate their new self-worth by the degree to which they are considered important — and needed.
So, next time, it might be wiser to give a holler to those like a brooding John Murtha, Richard Clarke or Wesley Clarke — even if their advice would probably be unsound. No Cabinet job necessary — just an invite to come down to schmooze at the White House rather than having them scream at it from the outside.
As a learned professor, he puts this much more nicely than a couple of cruder pieces of advice that say the same thing:
Better to have them inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in--even though they couldn't pour piss out of a boot if the instructions were written on the heel.
Probably sound advice.
