Defense Department official accuses the Obama White House of being 'constipated'

Despite the Obama administration's recent track record of foreign policy success — restoring relations with Cuba, the Iran deal, a climate deal with China, and various trade agreements — many in the Defense Department are grumbling about being elbowed out of the National Security Council's decision-making. In The Washington Post, several unnamed officials dished on their frustration with the White House's NSC clique and Obama's "micromanaging," which some say ultimately ends up keeping policies from ever getting off the ground.

Or, as one official bemoaned, policymaking has been "sclerotic at best, constipated at worse."

"There are problems that call for a real 'whole of government' solution," David Rothkopf, who has extensively covered the NSC, added in The Washington Post. "I've never seen an administration that says it more and does it less."

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"Benghazi is a good example, and . . . Ebola," another former official explained. "That can't just be left to CDC and State and others to manage. No. You have to have a czar and a whole team of people. And why is that? Because the politics on this issue have become so much more corrosive and challenging that it's a natural instinct for the White House to say, 'We've got to have an eye on this. On everything.'"

See, Obama? Nobody likes a micromanager. Read all the whining in The Washington Post.