You know why this is disappointing? It's not because the appointment is going to be a source of tension in the US-Israel alliance. At this point, whatever. And it's not because I always thought she'd come back as Secretary of State. Given her role during the transition, I'll settle for partial credit.

Nope. The real downer is that I was this close to believing the media's panegyrics about Obama's vaunted "Team Of Rivals." Diverse thinking, best of the best, etc. But between Power's appointment and NSA Chief Jim Jones, I'm getting something less than a heterogeneous vibe from the NSC:

Samantha Power, the Harvard University professor who earned notoriety for calling Hillary Rodham Clinton a "monster" while working to elect Barack Obama president, will take a senior foreign policy job at the White House, The Associated Press has learned. Officials familiar with the decision say Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council, a job that will require close contact and potential travel with Clinton, who is now secretary of state. NSC staffers often accompany the secretary of state on foreign trips. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because Power's position, as well as that of other senior NSC positions, have not yet been announced. One official said the announcements would be made in the near future.

Apparently advocating the invasion of a key US ally doesn't earn you notoriety on the foreign policy left, provided that the ally is Israel. Nor does talking darkly about "a domestic constituency of tremendous political and financial import" that would be troubled by said invasion. But calling someone a mean name and tarnishing The One's halo of purity - that's the kind of thing you get tagged with for life.

Now in fairness, Marty Peretz thinks that Power only wants to invade Israel because she's overflowing with affection for the Jewish State. Which is weird, because promising to pressure Israel is also how Power and her foreign policy colleagues express their affection for the Arab world. I guess Israelis and Arabs really do have the same underlying interests!

Obligatory video of Power demonstrating her foreign policy bona fides:

References and previously after the jump...