Technocrat James Schlesinger Is Dead At 85

mdsolar (1045926) writes "James Schlesinger, who served as Secretary of Defense under Presidents Nixon and Ford and as the first Secretary of Energy under President Carter, passed away on Thursday in Baltimore at the age of 85. Schlesinger is perhaps the most technocratic person to reach such high office. He had a keen awareness of the connection between energy supply and national defense and as Administrator of the Economic Regulatory Administration, brought our Standby Gasoline Rationing Plan into existence. The existence of such a plan along with our Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which Schlesinger also brought into being, have been a bulwark against further oil embargoes and essentially broke OPEC for a period of more than a decade. The NYT has an obituary that covers more of his career."

Comments

At least you knew who he was.

[rmdingler]

He always spoke his mind, and certainly due in large part to that attribute, was fired from two of his three Cabinet posts.

He committed mutiny during the last breaths of the Nixon administration when he notified the military not to take orders from the White House, particularly those with a nuclear tint, when he became concerned with Dick's erratic behavior... and he prepared for troops to enter Washington in case the succession to Ford didn't go smoothly.

I'm just simple, but give me a man of differing viewpoints who is candidly sincere about who he is versus an ally who takes fake to new levels...it becomes a monolemma.

Re:And then Reagan fucked it all up.

[sumdumass]

Its bad form to put your post in the subject but i think you should know it was Carter that deregulated the banks. He worked eith the democrat controlled congress to pass into law the depository institutions deregulatiom and monitary sometjing act in 1980 before Reagan took office.

  So lets proced from there if you still pretend outrage.