Dean's Foreign Policy

For some time now, I've said that Dean's lack of foreign policy experience bothers me, and that I've at the very least wanted to know who his advisors were. I couldn't find a record of this anywhere, and I came to the conclusion he simply didn't have any. However, I recently found this article about Democratic foreign policy advisors in general, and learned that one Danny Sebright has been arranging for meetings between Dean and various foreign policy luminaries, none of whom they are willing to name.

There are two obvious questions, here. The first: Who is Danny Sebright, who seems to be Dean's version of Condoleezza Rice? Turns out he's a DoD civil servant who worked first in the Clinton administration as the DoD's man on the Middle East peace process and a coordinator of arms sales to Israel. (This gives his title then as "Israel Country Director.") Later, he worked on Bush's missile defense policy and later in Donald Rumsfeld's office as the "Director of the Executive Secretariat for Enduring Freedom," where he helped oversee the war in Afghanistan. In February 2002, he became Associate Vice President of the Cohen Group, a consulting firm headed by William Cohen, former GOP Senator from Maine and Clinton's Secretary of Defense.

The second is why Dean won't name those he's been meeting with. The only other name I could turn up was Maria Echeveste, whom I can't find stuff on as readily. One possibility is that for some reason Dean doesn't want to reveal meeting with people who aren't committed to him, but that didn't stop him from claiming to have been meeting with Wesley Clark before Clark entered the race. A more likely possibility is that Dean is deploying this stuff strategically. Dean's reputation as a liberal comes mainly from his opposition to the Iraq war. However, Dean's actual record of foreign policy views is rather hawkish, and the cynic in me still wonders if he largely saw opposing the Iraq war as a way to stand out in a crowded primary field. This guy is very shrewd - it's on thing I like about him - and it may be he's waiting until after the primaries to sketch out a "Scoop" Jacksonish foreign policy to appeal to the broad center, the groundwork for which is now being laid as he mentions his support for the war in Afghanistan and 1991 Persian Gulf War.

In any event, these are my thoughts for the day. I now need to let all this filter around in my head before I decide whom to vote for. I would also definitely be interested in hearing from anyone who knows how these things work.

UPDATE: I cross-posted this to Daily Kos, where there is now an actual discussion thread.