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This morning brought news that President Obama had nominated Congressman John McHugh (R-NY) as the next Secretary of the United States Army.

Now, as the old saying goes: One is a fluke, two is a coincidence, three is a trend. So this may just be a coincidence at this point, but this morning's news reminded me of Obama's choice to be Secretary of the Navy: Former Mississippi Governor Ray Mabus.

Bracketing the remote possibility that Mabus is in fact Nostradamus' third antichrist, this is still a fairly interesting trend, because what McHugh and Mabus have in common is that they're both former politicians. This may seem mundane, but it's actually fairly uncommon for either service secretary to be a former politician. Don't believe me? See here and here: Post-war, Army has had only three pols take the helm, and Navy hasn't had any (though plenty of Navy Secretaries -- Chaffee, Warner, Webb -- have gone on to become pols).

This points at the broader point that the White House seems to be taking a fairly enlightened view of politicians. We tend to think of "politician" as a type of person rather than a skillset, but the word really does describe a demeanor and skillset that is highly applicable to jobs other than holding elected office. Recognizing and drawing on the talents that successful politicians have, particularly for building coalitions (note that McHugh and Mabus both hail from places where the opposite party is arguably politically dominant), is an interesting management insight from our Administrator-In-Chief.

It's a sunny day here at the GovExec offices, and I think everyone has a little bit of spring fever. So when I discovered this picture of Obama's Navy Secretary nominee Ray Mabus, a big debate started over whether the Navy allows beards like this:

It turns out the Navy's facial hair regulations are as follows:

The face shall be clean shaven unless a shaving waiver is authorized by the Commanding Officer per. Mustaches are authorized but shall be kept neatly and closely trimmed. No portion of the mustache shall extend below the lip line of the upper lip. It shall not go beyond a horizontal line extending across the corners of the mouth and no more than 1/4 inch beyond a vertical line drawn from the corner of the mouth. The length of an individual mustache hair fully extended shall not exceed approximately ½ inch.

refers. Handlebar mustaches, goatees, beards or eccentricities are not permitted. If a shaving waiver is authorized, no facial/neck hair shall be shaved, manicured, styled or outlined nor exceed 1/4 inch in length. Supervisors of individuals with shaving waivers shall actively monitor and ensure treatment regimen is followed. The following personnel are not authorized to wear any facial hair except for valid medical reasons:

a. Brig prisoners.

b. Brig awardees.

c. Personnel in a disciplinary hold status (i.e., who are serving restriction or hard labor without confinement or extra duties as a result of a court‑martial or NJP).

d. Personnel assigned to a transient personnel unit who are awaiting separation:

(1) By reason of a court‑martial sentence.

(2) To benefit the service

Some of the big news yesterday was that the Obama administration is going to send a lot more civilian federal employees to Afghanistan. I tended to think of that from a workforce perspective, but fortunately Spencer Ackerman is around to put this move in the context of diplomacy and counter-insurgency tactics. He writes of the leaders of the civilian surge:

These are two serious heavy hitters. Galbraith -- who basically uncovered the Kurdish genocide of 1987-8 (read about it in now-White House aide Samantha Power's first book) -- is one of the leading lights of the global human-rights movement. Ricciardone, a former ambassador to Egypt who's a foreign-service rock star, helped establish the post-Coalition Provisional Authority composition of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Iraq. What's more, they're going to be joined by Tim Carney, a former ambassador to Sudan and another diplomatic eminence with Iraq experience. These are people you go to when you want to send a message about the importance of diplomacy.

According to DeYoung's piece, this isn't just a diplomatic plus-up, it's a plus-out. (Ugh sorry I sound like Tom Friedman.) That is, these diplomats (and agronomists and legal experts and others) aren't going to be clustered in Kabul. They'll be sent around the country, including down south in Taliban and insurgent strongholds. The idea, evidently, is to roll back the insurgency's ability to outgovern the Kabul government in those areas. That's a big cultural shift toward a more deployable, activist State Department.

I think the State Department is going to see huge changes in the next several years: there will be more staffing, but there will also be a lot more asked of the Foreign Service. I just hope that the administration will take action with workforce planning in mind.

VA and DoD are notorious for being hampered by coordination issues when it comes to veterans. Maybe this will help:

On Friday, the White House announced its intention to nominate W. Scott Gould, a former Navy Reserve intelligence officer, to be VA deputy secretary under retired Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, the former Army chief of staff recently named to head VA...Gould is married to Michelle Flournoy, whom Obama has nominated to be undersecretary of defense for policy.

Again, from Elizabeth Newell:

The Senate has confirmed Raytheon senior vice president for government operations and strategy William Lynn as deputy Defense secretary with a 93-4 vote. The lobbyist’s nomination stirred controversy in the wake of President Obama’s ethics executive order banning any lobbyists entering the administration from handling issues or agencies they had lobbied in the previous two years.

Despite the controversy, only four senators – Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi and Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, all Republicans – voted against confirming the nominee.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has acknowledged the potential problems with the executive order, saying it is becoming increasingly more difficult for experts “who understand the acquisition business, who understand systems management” but have worked in the private sector to come into public service.

"The president recognized ... that to be able to get some of these people he'd need to exercise a waiver and he provided for that, I think wisely, in the executive order," Gates said. "But I think all of us -- the Congress, the executive branch -- together need to look at this and see if we're cutting off our nose to spite our face."

Perhaps it's just poor phrasing, but President Obama seems to be taking a shot at civilian Defense Department employees in this statement:

“I have every confidence that our military is going to do their job, and I intend to make sure that the civilian side of the ledger does its job to support what they are doing.”

I'm not sure this is that famed message discipline...

Presented without comment. Spotted by the sharp-as-always-even-from-New-York Rob Brodsky:

DoD News Briefing with Geoff Morrell from the Pentagon

MR. MORRELL: Good afternoon. Pleasure to see you all today. I have just a few announcements, and I'll gladly take your questions.

First, Secretary Gates very much appreciates the Senate Armed Services Committee quickly arranging hearings this Thursday for the first four people nominated to serve in this department under President Obama. As you know, last week the president-elect nominated Bill Lynn to be the deputy Defense secretary, Michelle Obama (sic) for undersecretary of Defense for Policy --

Q That was Flournoy --

Q Not Obama --

(Cross talk.)

Q (Laughs.)

MR. MORRELL: Excuse me. (Laughter.) Thank you for correcting me. (Laughter.) Talk about an --

Q (Off mike.)

MR. MORRELL: Talk about an active first lady!

Apparently, there is a British nuclear-armed submarine at sea, at this moment, with instructions from Prime Minister Gordon Brown locked in a safe, telling the commander whether or not to use the on-board weapons to retaliate of England is destroyed in a devastating attack.

It seems like a deeply improbable scenario. But it's true, and Ron Rosenbaum lays out the dilemmas of nuclear-decision making in a haunting Slate piece on the Letter of Last Resort today. I found this fascinating for a number of reasons. First, the scenario itself harkens back to an age of nuclear anxiety that I, as a member of Generation Y, find incomprehensible. Second, it's so deeply personal: only the sub's commander has access to the letter, he can only read it if he's informed British leadership has been decapitated, and he's not supposed to tell anyone what it says if he ever has occasion to read it. When British PMs leave office, their Letters of Last Resort are destroyed unread.

But what does this all have to do with our government, you ask? And rightly so. It turns out Rosenbaum interviewed some of the American submariners who were responsible for firing nuclear missiles if it came to retaliation back in the late 1970s. I'm not going to quote that portion of the piece so you'll have to actually go read it. But suffice to say, it's an amazing illustration of how the biggest policy decisions come down to the single person who is actually pulling the trigger.

President Bush has asked all of his appointees to submit their resignations in anticipation of the transfer to the Obama administration in January, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who's sticking around after the transition, wants some of his underlings to be exceptions to the rule.

The Washington Times reports that Gates has asked many of the 250 appointees at the Pentagon to stick around until the Obama team finds replacements for them.

"I have received authorization from the president-elect's transition team to extend a number of Department of Defense political appointees an invitation to voluntarily remain in their current positions until replaced," Gates said in an e-mail sent Friday.

But at least three appointees have been told that they won't get to stay, and need to vacate their offices by Jan. 20. And Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England already has announced that he won't be sticking around.

Want to see a debate over the role of contractors in war zones up close and personal? You'll need to visit the latrine on a U.S. military base in Kuwait.