Nominee for Next Defense Secretary: Physicist Ashton Carter
It hasn’t been officially announced yet, but numerous sources report that President Obama’s nominee for the next Secretary of Defense will be Ashton Carter, a physicist with many years of experience in national security and defense.
“Great, very highly qualified,” said Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz), who will replace Levin as chairman next month, called Carter a “noncontroversial” choice. Both senators said they had yet to receive formal notification from the White House of Carter’s selection.
Carter, 60, is little known outside Washington but is renowned for his intellect. A Rhodes scholar, he earned a doctorate in theoretical physics from Oxford University and holds degrees in physics and medieval history from Yale. A longtime faculty member at Harvard, he began lecturing at Stanford this fall.
John McCain may think Carter’s a “noncontroversial” pick, but just watch: the right wing universe is already starting a massive freak-out because he was not a fan of Reagan’s “star wars” boondoggle.