Richard Holbrooke: Is He Being Forced Out?

The dust is settling around Gen. Stanley McChrystal's resignation, but the shakeup in President Obama's national security team may not be over. According to The Los Angeles Times, Richard Holbrooke, the administration's special envoy to Pakistan and Afghanistan, is on the outs. Some interpreted Obama's stern warning against division within his team as a message directed specifically at Holbrooke, who has been known to ruffle feathers within the administration and has had trouble building relationships with military and civilian leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. He was also sidelined during important negotiations with Afghan President Hamid Karzai. But, as the Times points out, Holbrooke's position within the Obama administration had been on shaky ground for some time, and he's managed to hang in there. "He's a dead man walking, but he could be walking for some time," a source who's worked closely with Holbrooke told the paper. Holbrooke, for his part, insists that his role has not diminished, sarcastically writing in an email earlier this month that he was at "one of those high-level meetings that I hear I am not involved in."