David Frum: Speak up, John Bolton

Despite its humble origins and narrow legal foundation, in less than 20 years the position became known—by its unofficial title of “national security adviser”—as the most powerful appointed post in Washington. As government grew and America’s engagement with the world evolved during the Cold War, the influence of staffers grew along with the power of the presidency itself. Charismatic advisers such as Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski also made the job seem even more important than it looked on organizational charts.

For the most part, Congress accepted the rise of a bureaucratic heavyweight without asserting its authority to provide advice and consent on the president’s appointments, which was originally meant not just as a part of a system of checks and balances, but also as a means to keep incompetent presidential cronies out of government. It is not that the idea of making the national security adviser a Senate-confirmable post has never been discussed or threatened before, but letting the president make the selection is one of many practices, used during Democratic and Republican Congresses and presidencies, that have become part of Washington common law.

The closest Washington came to changing that rule of thumb was in the 1980s. As part of what became known as the Iran-Contra affair, President Ronald Reagan’s national security adviser and some of the NSC staff pursued a scheme to trade weapons to Iran and then illegally use the proceeds to support those battling Nicaragua’s socialist government. When the plan and an attempted cover-up were exposed, some called for the eradication of the staff itself, or at least congressional oversight of the national security adviser.

However, as I wrote for The Atlantic in May, much of official Washington took another view, best articulated by the special review board established to look into Iran-Contra and led by former Senator John Tower, former Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, and former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft. The so-called Tower Board concluded that the national-security system was the “president’s creature” and that, like the rest of the White House staff, the role of national security adviser should be malleable to fit the president’s “individual work habits and philosophical predilections.” Not only did the board recommend against confirmation; its members encouraged Congress to trust the president.

Graeme Wood: How long can John Bolton take this?

Despite how little government experience Trump brings to the White House, Congress has mostly accorded the current commander in chief the same deference. Although there was some vocal discomfort with his early decision to appoint his controversial political adviser Steve Bannon to one NSC committee, Trump has been allowed to shape the system to fit his habits and predilections. He has used the freedom not only to remove Bannon from the committee after a few months, but also to delegate some authorities, and to fire three national security advisers, including Bolton last week, during his almost 32 months in office.