Well, we all saw this coming for a while...

[Bob Schroeck]

...Trump fires Tillerson.

He's already been replaced by the director of the CIA, Mike Pompeo.

[hazard]

Which means the CIA needs a new director.

Is it strange that I think Tillerson was probably one of the more qualified people in the Trump administration? At least in so far that although he was not a career civil servant he at least managed to work quite well with the department he was leading and made sense to the world when it came to US policy?

[Bob Schroeck]

Oh, he's already nominated Deputy Director Gina Haspel to become the first female director of the CIA.

[DHBirr]

Which means the CIA needs a new director.

Is it strange that I think Tillerson was probably one of the more qualified people in the Trump administration? At least in so far that although he was not a career civil servant he at least managed to work quite well with the department he was leading and made sense to the world when it came to US policy?

Actually, the reports I've seen tended to indicate he didn't work well with the State Department.  Jennifer Rubin, a.k.a. "Jennghazi" for her anti-Clinton furor until she realized Trump is worse, had this to say:

Tillerson was arguably the weakest secretary of state in the post-World War II era. He oversaw a failed reorganization effort at Foggy Bottom, which depressed morale and led to an exodus of veteran diplomats. His downgrading of human rights as an essential part of American foreign policy mortified the human rights community and initiated a retreat from defense of democracies at the very time Western democracies are under assault from authoritarians and neo-fascists. His aversion to the press and to the role of public diplomacy more generally, as well as his frosty relationship with Congress, indicated that he never made the successful transition from oil executive to the country’s lead diplomat.

and:

Max Bergmann, another State Department veteran, now at the Center for American Progress, tells me, “He is a contender for worst Secretary of State in history. He was also virtually irrelevant in crafting policy.” However, Bergmann says, what “he will be most known for his disdain of U.S. diplomacy. In a period of economic expansion he set about gutting a department that had already suffered under six years of austerity.” He added, “His disastrous ‘reorg’ has proved a lie to the notion that government should be run like a business. In his brief tenure [he] has found a way to inflict lasting damage to the diplomatic corps and U.S. diplomacy.”

-----
"Oh, my people had many gods. There was Conformity, and Authority, and Expense Account, and Opinion. And there was Status, whose symbols were many, and who rode in the great chariot Cadillac, which was almost a god itself. And there was Atombomb, the dread destroyer, who would some day come to end the world." 
— Lord Kalvan of Otherwhen, H. Beam Piper

[hazard]

Huh, I stand corrected.

Also, apparently no news is good news. From his lack of news relevance I figured he was less incompetent than the average Trump appointee.

Which is admittedly damnation through faint praise. I may also be confusing him with a different Trump appointee.

[robkelk]

On the flip side, he worked well with Chrystia Freeland during the Vancouver Summit (regarding North Korea's nuclear weapons program). Problems with Canada-US relations probably just got a bit more difficult to work out.

[Labster]

From his lack of news relevance I figured he was less incompetent than the average Trump appointee.

The thing is, Tillerson is less incompetent than the average Trump appointee.  Just because he's objectively failing at his job doesn't mean that there aren't more people in the "F-" grade range.

Betsy de Vos gave an interview broadcast Sunday where she proves that a Secretary of Education does not have to know anything, or even have curiosity, about schools.  Rick Perry couldn't even get his stupid coal power plan approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has a majority of Trump-appointed members.  Ben Carson's qualification for being HUD Secretary are "being urban" and living in an apartment once.  Jeff Sessions is a law-and-order guy for Attorney General -- especially for the Jim Crow laws -- who is increasingly under investigation himself for a cover-up.  And that's not even getting to Jared Kushner, or Ivanka Trump, or that guy who beat his wives.  Seriously, in the scheme of things, Rex Tillerson was one of the good ones.  Just because people keep quitting in his department doesn't mean that it's not happening in all of the other departments too.

Ryan Zinke is probably the most competent of all of Trump's people, if you think that selling national parks to uranium miners is a neat idea.  He's adept at the process of government, which lets us sell off our natural resources that much faster.  He also spent $139k on doors for his office, because for some reason this gun rights advocate is afraid someone will shoot him.

[robkelk]

CBC: "H.R. McMaster out as national security adviser, Trump taps John Bolton"

Exit a career military man, enter a hawk who couldn't get Senate confirmation for his nomination as UN ambassador during the Bush years.

[robkelk]

And the revolving door keeps spinning... CBC: Trump to fire Veterans Affairs secretary, nominating White House doctor as replacement

Although I suspect Shulkin would have been fired by any sitting President, if the article is accurate.

[Labster]

Yeah. Trump was right on sacking Shulkin, as this was pretty clearly abuse of privilege. Now, you might quibble with that because hey, he was just following the President's example, but the law is the law. Unless, of course, you're the President, in which case WITCH HUNT!