When Donald Trump picked Mattis, a sixty-six-year-old ex-Marine who goes by the nickname Mad Dog, to run the Pentagon, some observers predicted that his nomination could run into opposition from the Senate Armed Services Committee, which oversees the Pentagon and the rules governing it—including one that precludes ex-officers from serving as Secretary of Defense until they have been out of uniform for seven years. The confirmation hearing that McCain held on Thursday demonstrated that many members of the committee, particularly the Democratic ones, are hoping that Mattis will act as a bulwark against Trump, the authoritarian tendencies he represents, and some of his scarier counsels, particularly Michael Flynn, a former three-star general slated to be Trump’s national-security adviser.
http://www.newyorker.com/news/john-cassidy/the-senate-places-its-faith-in-mad-dog-mattis
