Outside the Beltway

In Front of Our Noses: A Parade of Bozos

At a time of increased terrorist threat, look who is in charge of key departments.

Steven L. Taylor · Tuesday, March 24, 2026 · 7 comments

“To see what is in front of one’s nose needs a constant struggle.”-George Orwell.

For previous entries, click here.

I was listening to a recent installment of the Bulwark Podcast, which was a chat with David Frum entitled, A Very Bad Time for Bozos to Be in Charge and it struck me as a perfect example of why I started this particular series of posts. I mean, sure, I am painfully aware that Kash Patel is the FBI Director, but it is so easy to just watch the clown parade go by and forget, at least to some degree, what a serious mess it all is.

Let’s consider: the US is actively involved in a military entanglement with Iran. Iran is a known sponsor of international terrorism. But more importantly, the Iranians are clearly at a massive disadvantage militarily against the US and its allies, and so need to use non-conventional arms such as their geostrategic advantage over the Strait of Hormuz or asymmetric tactics like the deployment of terrorism.

Let’s stop and consider which organizations within the US government are supposed to protect US citizens from terrorism. Well, one is the FBI, run by the aforementioned Kash Patel (and until recently, had a deputy director, Dan Bongino, whose main resume line is “podcaster”).

Patel is the guy who recently fired a number of agents who were Iran experts because they had been tasked with the investigation into Trump’s retention of classified documents. Do I think that eliminated US counter-intelligence efforts regarding Iran? No, but it does demonstrate where the priorities are (alongside other items on the “to do” list like hanging out in the locker room with the US men’s hockey team, flying to see his girlfriend perform, inviting UFC fighters to “train agents,” and having, like, a really sick challenge coin, bro).

I am sure he is laser-focused on the threat posed by possible Iranian attacks on the homeland.

Speaking of the homeland, another entity that is supposed to protect us from terrorism (indeed, that is the reason it was created in the first place) is the Department of Homeland Security.

How’s that looking? Well, yesterday the Senate approved the appointment of Markwayne Mullin to be the Secretary of Homeland Security.

Mullin owns a plumbing business, is a rancher, and was briefly a semi-pro MMA fighter. He was elected to the House in 2012 and the Senate in 2022.

His main qualification is, I think, that he has demonstrated a great propensity for being on television bombastically supporting Trump. I have no confidence in his ability to efficaciously perform the duties of DHS Secretary. For what it is worth, I do find him to be at least a marginal improvement over Krist Noem (but a butternut squash would be an improvement over Noem, so I damn with faint praise).

Side note on DHS: the TSA was made a federal agency in the aftermath of 9/11 on the argument that airports are an area of potential terrorism. At the moment, TSA agents aren’t being paid because the party in power does not want to acquiesce to reasonable constraints on ICE agents. Oh, and now ICE agents are milling around airports.

Do you feel safer yet?

Let’s not forget that Tulsi Gabbard is the Director of National Intelligence, a post for which she had no qualifications, and that the main qualifications that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had for his job were being on television and the way he looks. And the Attorney General clearly is more concerned with doing the Boss’s bidding than the actual job of running the DOJ, which includes the FBI.

This is truly a stunning array of persons in charge, ostensibly, of keeping us safe and secure.

All of this confirms and deepens my views On Qualification for Cabinet Positions.