So this is where we are, now: “Ash Carter vows to be a “stickler for the chain of command” if confirmed by the Senate as the next secretary of defense, according to the opening statement prepared for his confirmation hearing Wednesday.” As Glenn Reynolds notes, this is pretty much semantically equivalent to Ash Carter saying that he’ll keep Barack Obama away from the controls at the Department of Defense until the end of the Obama administration. Which is… great news, actually; and God help us all that it is.