Donald Trump has fired Rex Tillerson as secretary of state for occasional truthiness. He’ll be succeeded b CIA Director Mike Pompeo. Republican Sen. Tom Cotton who’d been mentioned as a possible CIA director in such an event, wasn’t tapped for the job. Gina Haspel, the current deputy director, will get the post.

This is a good news/bad news development for the country and Arkansas vis a vis Tom Cotton.

UPDATE: Vox speculates on why Cotton didn’t get the job. Alas, it’s more a reflection on Trump than Cotton.

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So what happened? It depends on whom you ask. But the inescapable lesson is: Trump’s administration has become so radioactive that the president can’t bring in one of his party’s most promising stars, one of his closest allies in the Republican establishment, to take such a prominent post.

But Vox also says Trump might not have wanted to open up Cotton’s Senate seat.  Also, maybe Cotton — mean but no dummy — decided Trump might lose in 2020. Or maybe the ambitious Cotton decided he could build his own national ambitions better in the Senate.

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