President Obama’s top spokesman — and Vice President Joe Biden, in last week’s debate — have been busy pointing fingers of blame at State and the IC.
It won’t work. Neither Foggy Bottom nor the intel community’s legion of spooks, analysts and secret-keepers is likely to go quietly.
Indeed, State has already started the pushback. It has pointedly released the transcript of an Oct. 9 media briefing in which Brad Klapper of the Associated Press asks what “led officials to believe for the first several days that this was prompted by protests against the video?”
Someone described only as “Senior State Department Official Two” answers, “That is a question you would have to ask others. That was not our conclusion.”
I don’t think they’ll be able to contain this internecine war until November 6th. I sure hope they can’t.
[Update a while later]
Rudy Guliani: “The White House is trying to run out the clock.”
Plus this: “Am I debating with the president’s campaign?…If this weren’t a Democratic president, I think you people would be going crazy.”
No kidding.
[Update a few minutes later]
You know, per Rudy’s comments, if this were a Republican administration, I’d be just as outraged. In fact, I’d be even more so, because I’d have higher expectations. But the usual suspects come along in comments to pathetically try to defend the indefensible, and blame the Republicans.