Five star utility man

JACQUELYN MARTIN / AP

Trump apparently can't bear to look at his retiring Secretary of Defense James Mattis for another second longer than he has to and is sticking a Deputy, Patrick Shanahan in, to temporarily fill the position.

General Mattis is now scheduled to scram January 1 instead of staying through February as was originally planned.

I confess that I don't know much about Shanahan but I wonder why Trump felt the need to make that move when he had such a great utility player right under his nose who could surely play the position.

Mick Mulvaney can't be that busy, can he? What is one more job for a guy like Mick? He is currently Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Acting White House Chief of Staff and was acting Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. He can hit, he can field and he can tell the President how great he is on a daily basis and let Trump be Trump. Surely he can play Secretary of Defense too.

Mulvaney is a brown noser non pareil. Guy is an expert at talking through both sides of his mouth, as a congressman he claimed to be a fiscal conservative but during Mulvaney's tenure as OMB Director there was a dramatic expansion in the Federal deficit due to huge spending increases and massive tax cuts. In a rare moment of candor he allowed as to how asinine the idea of a border wall was but now manages to laugh his indiscretion off as a joke.

Fire everybody else, Mick and Trump can run the whole show between them!

You want me to jump? How high Mr President?