Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman isn't really serious about seeking the 2012 Republican presidential nomination. If he was, the last thing he would do is appoint Mark McIntosh as his top policy advisor.
According to Politico Pro, McIntosh will "will split his time between Huntsman's Orlando headquarters and the GOP policy world in Washington coordinating expert advice on a range of issues, from the economy to energy, health care and foreign policy."
So who the heck is Mark McIntosh, you ask? You've probably never heard of him because he is not an elected official, nor has he ever held a highly visible appointed position in a presidential administration. McIntosh's GOP credentials consists of serving as deputy general counsel to the President's Council on Environmental Quality during President George W. Bush's tenure in the White House.
Even so, MacIntosh is perhaps the Big Green environmental movement's most powerful "Republican." But don't take my word for it. Here's how Think Progress Green, a blog of the ultra-liberal Center for American Progress talk tank, describes Huntsman's choice as his top policy advisor: "McIntosh has a long record of environmental activism, and is now an influential actor in the international movement to stop global warming."
Indeed, McIntosh's resume reads like something written for the purpose of making senior executives of radical environmental groups like the Natural Resources Defense Council, Earth Day Network and the Sierra Club shake with delight at the prospect of having one of their own in the advisory role to a GOP presidential seeker.
McIntosh was an attorney for Earth Justice, managed policy issues for the Pew Environment Group and served at the Enviromental Law Clinic.
An heir to the A & P fortune, McIntosh is also an advisor to Client Earth, a European environmental activist group that supplies legal aid and personnel to environmental organizations and causes. For more on McIntosh from Think Progress Green, go here.
With such an inherited-wealth elitist/Big Green environmentalist/Washington insider lawyer background, it is inconceivable that McIntosh knows the first thing about why the Tea Party was born in 2009 and continues to be the fulcrum on which GOP hopes for 2012 rest.
Similarly, it is doubtful McIntosh understands why the GOP won the biggest mid-term election victory since the Coolidge era with its 2010 success, or why virtually every entry on his resume would be viewed by most of the Republican base as reasons to vote against Huntsman.
To grasp just how significant is McIntosh's selection, imagine if at the outset of his campaign for the 2000 GOP presidential nomination George W. Bush had appointed as his top policy advisor Carol Browner, former EPA administrator and long-time environmental advisor to Vice President Al Gore.
So why is Huntsman running?
