Flynn fiasco is a test Trump must pass

This editorial appeared in The Raleigh News & Observer:

Michael Flynn had everything President Donald Trump was looking for in a senior White House national security adviser. He is a retired lieutenant general and though Trump was deferred from military service, he has been enamored of generals. He is a toughtalking, America-First true believer. And, he was a critic of President Barack Obama. Flynn fit the Trump mold of wanting to get in-your-face to Democrats and career government officials. In most of his appointments, from the Energy Department to Education to Labor to senior advisers, Trump has delighted in going against the mainstream.

But now, with Flynn’s resignation after embarrassing and potentially damaging revelations about his pre-inaugural contacts with Russia, Trump is in the first major crisis of his presidency — less than two months after taking office. The fun of thumbing his nose at the establishment with appointments like that of right-wing nationalist Steve Bannon as senior strategist is over. Replacing Flynn and restoring confidence in Flynn’s position and confidence in the president himself, in addition to clarifying the U.S. position with regard to Russia, is a test Trump must pass or he risks losing support in Congress and the confidence of the people. Indications already show a drop in Trump’s approval ratings, and a president without significant public support, even if it is less than a majority, cannot govern effectively.

There will be time for Congress to investigate just what Flynn told a Russian ambassador about Trump’s views of the sanctions President Obama imposed after intelligence agencies found a likelihood that Russia was hacking emails to help Trump with the presidency. What he said, and whether he made guarantees of some kind that Trump would lift the sanctions, are questions that must be answered.

Let this be a serious realization to the president as well that the business of governing is not ideological, and that those who are chosen by the chief executive for important positions must be measured first in competence, reason, integrity and experience. Partisan factors can have a place on the list, but not the first place.