DoD Team Shapes Up

I meant to post about this yesterday, but President-elect Obama announced four important civilian additions to his Defense Department team yesterday. Matt Yglesias notes that some of the key defense leaders who endorsed Obama early haven't necessarily received jobs in return, but doesn't suggest any other patterns that the nominations suggest. I'd note that bringing Michèle Flournoy into government continues Obama's tradition of elevating leaders of liberal think tanks--Flournoy is president and co-founder of the Center for a New American Security.

From a political perspective, I'll be curious to see if that proves to be a wise decision. Conservative leaders like Grover Norquist, for example, have been close to various administrations, but have not taken formal positions within them, allowing, in Norquist's case, Americans for Tax Reform to have a prominent figurehead. John Podesta will presumably head back to the Center for American Progress with even more credibility among the Democratic establishment than he had when he headed off to head the transition. But it's less clear to me what Flournoy's departure will mean for the relatively new Center for a New American Security.