He may be “Mad Dog” to President Trump, but the new secretary of defense prefers plain old “Jim.”
Pentagon reporters were taken by surprise Thursday when, near the end of a routine off-camera briefing, in walked Defense Secretary James “Jim” Mattis, in a gray suit and sporting an electric-blue striped tie.
“We are off the record,” bellowed Capt. Jeff Davis, the Pentagon’s director of Press Operations. “If you don’t agree to that, you can leave now.”
No one left, and for three minutes the new Pentagon chief held court, displaying the folksy charm that no doubt endeared him to his troops.
The off-the-record restriction was dropped only once when the Washington Examiner asked Mattis what name he preferred to answer to, and if it might be time to retire the “Mad Dog” moniker.
“It’s you guys that came up with Mad Dog,” Mattis replied. “My own troops were laughing about it, saying, ‘We know your call sign is Chaos, where did this come from?’ It must have been a slow news day, some newsperson made it up.”
So what do we call him?
“I go by Jim. I was born Jim, I am from the West, Jim is fine, OK? How’s that?” said Mattis, adding “And that’s on the record!”
The question is whether anyone will have the temerity to inform the president of his defense secretary’s preference.
So far Trump has rarely missed a chance to call his legendary Marine commander, “Mad Dog.”
Maybe it’s best to let sleeping dogs lie.
