Cleaning Out The Cabinet

I was drawn to this shot on Yahoo News today illustrating Steven Hadley’s elevation to National Security Chief.

Out of all the images they could have pulled from the file drawer, why chose this one (from April 2001)? My take is that it illustrates how much the new team consists of people who will listen to what they’re told, and will carry out (and create the proper justifications for) their marching orders.

(It’s also interesting, though, that Hadley is looking away from Karen Hughes. I think you can read this in two ways that, although opposite, can both be true. The looking away can reflect ” the appearance” of independence. At the same time, if these people have any degree of personal autonomy, the tight leash has got to create some natural tendency to pull away.

(Image: YahooNews –Larry Downing/Reuters)