BREAKING US Navy secretary nominee withdraws: Pentagon

[sunonmars]

Link to tweet

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/nominee-for-navy-secretary-to-withdraw-235418

President Donald Trump’s nominee for Navy secretary, Philip Bilden, withdrew from consideration Sunday, becoming the second Pentagon pick unable to untangle his financial investments in the vetting process.

"Mr. Philip Bilden has informed me that he has come to the difficult decision to withdraw from consideration to be secretary of the Navy," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a statement. "This was a personal decision driven by privacy concerns and significant challenges he faced in separating himself from his business interests."


Mattis added that he would make a recommendation to the White House for a new nominee "in the coming days."

Bilden, who built his career in Hong Kong with the investment firm HarbourVest, was a surprise pick for the Navy post but had been Mattis’ preferred candidate.

Yet like billionaire investment banker Vincent Viola, who withdrew his nomination to be secretary of the Army earlier this month, Bilden ran into too many challenges during a review by the Office of Government Ethics to avoid potential conflicts of interest, according to sources familiar with the decision.

[spanone]

1. this white house takes weekends off.

[rzemanfl]

2. That's okay, Donald plays with little boats in the bathtub. He can handle it.

Besides, President Bannon was in the Navy once.

I wish I didn't feel the need to say

[underpants]

8. and

We can be pretty sure Bannon doesn't do that in a bath

[Charles Bukowski]

12. We can pretty sure Bannon doesn't bath.

[sunonmars]

3. and Spicer looks like a doofus yet again after denying it less than an hour ago.

[dalton99a]

5. Yep.

[underpants]

7. In a normal world this would call for a behind the scenes loud Spicer

WTF!!!

[malaise]

9. Looks like a doofus?

He's a nincompoop on steroids

[HipChick]

15. Seems like everyone else in DC knows what is going on

except Spicy..

[lpbk2713]

4. Too shifty to serve in the Trump admin.

That really takes a special effort.

Link: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/nominee-for-navy-secretary-to-withdraw-235418

[briv1016]

6. So now that's the Army and Navy. Any word on the Air Force nominee?

[pinboy3niner]

16. Off he goes, into the wild blue yonder...

Just kidding. Couldn't resist using that lyric.

[uponit7771]

10. Folk jumping the ship before it even gets going good

[backscatter712]

11. Lemme guess: He also thought that working for Trump would be a shit sandwich... n/t

[sunonmars]

13. Thats pretty much a given these days....

[gratuitous]

14. More clanking from that well-oiled machine

President Trump? Comment? Or too busy taking yet another weekend off?