Obama's Foreign Policy Republicans: Scowcroft, Gates, Powell

Scowcroft Protégés on Obama's Radar - WSJ.com

The relationship between the president-elect and the Republican heavyweight suggests that Mr. Scowcroft's views, which place a premium on an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, might hold sway in the Obama White House.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was deputy national-security adviser under Mr. Scowcroft in the George H.W. Bush administration, is almost certain to be retained by Mr. Obama, according to aides to the president-elect. Richard Haass, a Scowcroft protégé and former State Department official, could be tapped for a senior National Security Council, State Department or intelligence position. Mr. Haass currently runs the Council on Foreign Relations.

Other prominent Republicans with close ties to Mr. Obama -- including former Secretary of State Colin Powell, who endorsed the Democrat in the final days of the campaign, and Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- share Mr. Scowcroft's philosophy.

This is not new, as the Obama-Scowcroft relationship has been going on for awhile - at least since April:

From The Swamp

Scowcroft, NSA to Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, agrees with the position stated mainly by Sen. Barack Obama "that the U.S. would benefit from having direct talks with the leaders of its most distrusted adversaries.''

Asked by the HuffPost's questioner if the next president should meet with the likes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Scowcroft said: "Absolutely... It's hard to make things better if you don't talk."

Now we're learning that Obama's foreign policy team is going to look a lot like George Bush pre-911 -- with Gates being retained, and Colin Powell and Scowcroft in the brain trust. This is likely to make a lot of code pink style liberals saying, "what the hell?!" But it's actually going to be reassuring to most sane Americans, regardless of whether the new brain trust is right or not. They're just serious long term foreign policy professionals and they cross party lines. That's going to be the takeaway for most of us.

Oh and also, Brent Scowcroft is a Mormon -- is he for or against Prop 8? Did Obama vet him on that?