And a shrewd Chief of Staff that looked toward the next election (like Karl Rove) would use the Justice Department as the voting rights cops they are supposed to be used, and stop the Republican games of voter suppression from caging that keep coming up every election cycle.
Away from the squad, England look to have made a couple of shrewd additions to their coaching staff.
"I think Chalabi and the I.N.C. were very shrewd," Larry Wilkerson, the chief of staff to Colin Powell, who was then the Secretary of State, told me.
That's shrewd coaching by Jay Gruden and his staff; they most likely spotted a tell when studying Washington's film during the week.
To the surprise of its staff, he turned out to be a shrewd, tough boss who knew what he wanted.
Zander de Bruyn, from Somerset, and Yasir Arafat are shrewd signings and, after the other investment they have made in the playing staff in the last few years, they will want to see results.
This is a shrewd move: not only has General Makarov an impeccable record as a field and staff officer, he has worked with Mr Serdyukov directly, has an unfashionable interest in training and equipment issues and appears relatively clean.
There's also, of course, the elevation to the White House of a Chicagoan and some shrewd and sophisticated former Richard M. Daley associates, notably David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, senior advisers, and Rahm Emanuel, the chief of staff.
Prudent budgeting and shrewd marketing have ensured that the funding crisis has had no effect on the school's staff.
The bulk of them have come from shrewd property decisions (hello £200m from the sale of Television Centre at White City) rather than job cuts – although staff numbers have apparently fallen 12% to 18,500 in the past seven years.
