On Secretary of the Navy....

There is a Navy related issue circulating the political blogosphere in regards to Joe Sestak and how he was somehow offered the position of Secretary of the Navy instead of Ray Mabus last year.

Uhm, no chance in hell - the current Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff fired Joe from the Navy when Mike Mullen was CNO - Joe never had a prayer on Sunday of being SECNAV. But if we are going to entertain the political discussion even a little, I want to point out that there is another good reason he was never a serious candidate and why the Obama administration almost certainly never offered him the position.

According to law:

A person may not be appointed as Secretary of the Navy within five years after relief from active duty as a commissioned officer of a regular component of an armed force.

Joe retired July 22, 2005. He isn't even eligible to be Secretary of the Navy today - nor next month - so I am quite unsure how he would have thought he was going to be appointed Secretary of the Navy last year.

The guy is full of crap and probably telling lies, but in politics that doesn't really disqualify you anymore in America. Shame.

Which leads to a more serious question for this blogs readers. A year later, what do we think of Ray Mabus? I find him to be a very interesting administrator who has yet to find his stride nor put a stamp on the maritime services. That isn't really a complement nor a criticism, just an observation.