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Names being floated for next Navy secretary

Defense analysts and political observers in Washington agree the next Navy secretary will have a busy time running and reforming the Navy Department in the first years of the Obama administration. But what isn’t clear is who will likely get the job.

There are several possibilities: The names of naval analyst Bob Work; Rep. Joe Sestak, D.-Pa., a former Navy vice admiral; and even Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., have been bandied about as possible candidates. There are also some candidates in the defense industry. But the tricky part about handicapping Obama’s service secretaries is that he apparently isn’t using the same guidelines to staff his Defense Department as the rest of the federal government, one observer said.

“The Pentagon is one arena where we’re not seeing a lot of ‘change,’ the big thing he campaigned on,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior national security analyst for the conservative Heritage Foundation.

She pointed out Obama’s decision to keep Defense Secretary Robert Gates, rather than appoint his own person to run the Defense Department. That doesn’t mean Navy Secretary Donald Winter also will stay on. Or, it could.

“I have no idea what I’m going to do,” Winter said after an appearance in November at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. When he was asked directly whether he would stay if asked, he said, “That’s a hypothetical question.”

Winter and his predecessor, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, both came from the private sector; Winter from Northrop Grumman and England from General Dynamics. England has announced he’s leaving after the inauguration.

Naval expert Norman Polmar said he thought Obama’s secretary of the Navy would also be a “political” appointment from somewhere in the defense industry.

Those nominees can have an advantage over well-known public officials or even members of Congress, Eaglen said.

“Sometimes it helps if you don’t have written statements and policy papers in Washington — it may speed up your nomination,” she said. “But there’s financial matters to deal with for people coming from the private sector.”

As for the people on the unofficial Washington short list, Eaglen said she thinks Work has the best chance and would make the best secretary.

He is already serving on the Obama transition team and his recommendations have formed the basis for many of Obama’s early naval views, such as support for the Littoral Combat Ship program and the need for better green- and brown-water Navy capabilities.

No comment on the possibility

Work, a retired Marine colonel and an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, talks frequently to Navy Times about defense issues, but he had no comment on the possibility of his becoming Navy secretary. He has also stepped back from his usual job; after he joined the Obama transition team, CSBA postponed releasing his latest report on the future of the Navy.

Also worth noting: Work’s last job on active duty was as military assistant and senior aide to then-Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, now a prominent figure on the Obama team who is expected to play a key role in the new administration.

What’s interesting about Work’s potential ascension, Eaglen said, is that the buzz got its start on the blogosphere. The defense blogger Springbored, and then others, were among the first to suggest that Work take over after Winter.

“His name has bubbled up from the bottom up, versus from the top down, so then other people who care about Navy policy issues are pushing Bob’s name because he’s so widely respected and has such a good reputation,” Eaglen said.

Webb, the Virginia senator and decorated former Marine, would also be an interesting pick, since the job of Navy secretary is one he already held, and quit. He resigned in 1988 to protest congressionally mandated force structure cuts.

The other name that has been discussed for Obama’s Navy secretary, Sestak, is also a long shot, observers agreed.

Sestak, who rose to vice admiral but retired with two stars, has a great deal of Navy and political experience, but is considered unpopular on Capitol Hill. A 2007 report in The Hill newspaper called him a “temperamental and demanding boss.” He also does not get along with Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In 2005, on Mullen’s first day in office as chief of naval operations, he fired Sestak from his job as deputy CNO for warfare requirements, citing “a poor command climate.”

“You don’t need to bring that soap opera back to life,” Eaglen said.