Tom Donilon, The Four Million Dollar Man

President Obama today announced that National Security Adviser James L. Jones, disliked in Obama circles, is leaving earlier than expected, to be replaced by his deputy Tom Donilon, who is liked in Obama circles.

Well, he didn’t announce it exactly like that, but that’s what’s happening.

Some may find this comforting. It was nice back in the Seventies when the United States was protected by none other than the Six Million Dollar Man. In Donilon, Obama has something almost as good: The Four Million Dollar Man.

Because that’s what he earned in 2008. It’s time to start spreading the wealth around, for goodness sakes.

Donilon has been steadily accumulating wealth for years. He lobbied from 1999-2005 for Fannie Mae, trying to keep regulators at bay while Fannie Mae self-destructed amid accounting irregularities and loans to people who couldn’t afford them, driving the housing market and the economy off a cliff and into a ravine so deep that NO ONE CAN FIND THEM.

Having done his share to wreck the economy, Donilon went on to assist some of the financial fat cats Obama is always complaining about. From an April 5, 2009 Wall Street Journal article on some of the Obamaites 2008 earnings.

Deputy National Security Advisor Tom Donilon earned $3.9 million as a partner at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where his clients include Citigroup, Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Obama fundraiser and heiress Penny Pritzker.

Four million bucks in one year. Where’s the Hope and Change? NO HOPE!

I’ll bet Donilon can afford a flat screen TV.

Donilon has been trying to seize power for years, and now he’s finally got it. In his pursuit of power, he’s worked for the following people: Jimmy Carter, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton, Joseph Biden, and Barack Obama. Pretty good pickings.

He’s basically a good political operative who works very hard, and Obama likes him.

But, where’s the change? NO CHANGE! Come on! This guy’s a bigger insider than Henry Kissinger, without, so far as I can tell, much experience in national security before joining the Obama White House. He rose to become former Secretary of State Warren Christopher’s chief of staff in the 1990s, but does this qualify for him for his current position?

Oh, and the brass doesn’t seem to respect him. According to Bob Woodward’s “Obama’s Wars,” Defense Secretary Gates thought he would be a “disaster” as National Security Adviser.

It’s OK that the nation’s foreign policy is being run by a Secretary of State without foreign policy experience and a National Security adviser without a long history of national security experience. I DON’T MIND AT ALL!!!!

I do mind.

A good rundown of Donilon’s bio – and those of the other members of the Donilon Washington clan –  can be found on the Washington Post’s Who Runs Gov.