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Home Front: Politix
Jay Carney's 'Usefulness to This Administration is Diminishing Rapidly'
2013-05-13
White House press secretary Jay Carney had a tough week last week concluding with an absolutely deplorable press conference wherein he continued to spin totally unbelievable yarns about the administration's talking points regarding Benghazi.

This led George Will to say on ABC's This Week Sunday that Carney's "usefulness to this administration is diminishing rapidly"

MARTHA RADDATZ, SUBSTITUTE HOST: And they got those talking points out there. George Will, is this going to last? Is this going to have a lasting effect as an unacceptable way to do business at the White House?

GEORGE WILL: Lasting. A week ago, Mr. Carney - who's usefulness to this administration is diminishing rapidly - a week ago he said Benghazi was a long time ago as if it was the Punic Wars. This is a very live issue, because we now know three things.

We know that Mr. Hicks, the night of the attack, speaking from Libya, said pretty much what it was, an armed interaction, not a movie review conducted with rocket-propelled grenades and mortars.

Five days later on this program and on four other Sunday morning programs, the idea of an exceptionally boisterous movie review was still the administration's position.

And then, 14 days after the attack, at the UN, it was the same thing.

We started out with three arguments. Was security lax in Benghazi? Demonstrably. Could forces have been there to rescue them? Doubtful. Has the nation been systemically misled? Certainly.

Now, we need a select committee in congress because the State Department's misnamed accountability review board neglected to interview even the secretary of state.
Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC

#20  BP, NOW I understand! This all happened because the Administration thought EAP was Employee Assistance Plan - the drug enforcement piss police!
Posted by: Glenmore   2013-05-13 20:47  

#19  The only thing in the EAP was to shift blame and rapid deploy the PR guys armed with spin.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-05-13 20:34  

#18  I'd like to see it as well Billy. I'd also like to have a beer with the RSO.
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-05-13 20:33  

#17  "There are Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) on the shelf for each diplomatic mission overseas. They are updated exercised in one manner or another periodically. "

True but most Embassies have MSGs, FEBR doors/windows, and dedicated interior safe havens. Benghazi was a CF from day one as far as physical security. I would very interested to look at their EAP as I have quite a bit of experience writing/updating them.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy   2013-05-13 20:25  

#16  Exactly, Glenmore. Rep. Issa noted during the hearing last Wed. that ascertaining the DoD's assets and readiness in the region (like Aviano) on that day would be a fruitful line of inquiry to pursue. For example, there is a discrepancy between Gen. Dempsey's estimated response time (20 hours), versus what the defense attache told Acting Amb. Hicks (2-3 hours, but no tankers) that I am curious to know more about.

Because right, that would go to the broader question of, was a previous "9/11 readiness protocol" in place, which was subsequently discarded? If so, whose decision was it to change the routine, and what would the response time have been in comparison to the new plan? If I'd was Rep. Issa, I'd be getting ready to subpoena Panetta too.

I'd think that anyone who truly doesn't want this to happen again, would be curious to know more details too.
Posted by: RandomJD   2013-05-13 19:45  

#15  There are Emergency Action Plans (EAPs) on the shelf for each diplomatic mission overseas. They are updated exercised in one manner or another periodically.

How stupid do they think we are?
- George Will
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-05-13 19:04  

#14  And even WORSE - 'We, the People' STILL don't f**king care!
Posted by: Glenmore   2013-05-13 19:01  

#13  Yeah, RandomJD, it boggles the mind that the Administration could possibly be so ignorant and incompetent to not even permit continuation of standard preparations as they were, so I fear it was intentional - which is far, far worse.
Posted by: Glenmore   2013-05-13 19:00  

#12  Could forces have been there to rescue them? Dick Cheney, last week:

‘They should have been ready before anything ever happened . . . I mean, it’s North Africa – Libya, where they’ve already had major problems. You know that al-Qaeda is operating there, and you have some of the other al-Qaeda-affiliated groups there like Ansar al-Sharia and others.’ …

‘When we were there, on our watch, we were always ready on 9/11, on the anniversary,’ he recalled. ‘We always anticipated they were coming for us, especially in that part of the world.’

‘I cannot understand why they weren’t ready to go. You’ve got units in the Defense Department that are superb. They practice for this contingency. And they didn’t have anybody in the area.'
Posted by: RandomJD   2013-05-13 18:49  

#11  That graphic is an affront to Baghdad Bob, but seriously funny.
Posted by: Besoeker   2013-05-13 18:48  

#10  He hasn't been much use to the American public since he was installed in the WH -- so where is the news ?
Posted by: Shusose Fillmore2869   2013-05-13 18:43  

#9  Whether they were rescued or not, the thing for diplomats to remember everywhere is they didn't
even
bother
to try.

Did this used to be a great country, or what?
Posted by: Bobby   2013-05-13 18:09  

#8  Enema of the People...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2013-05-13 17:44  

#7  queue up Queen:

Bomp Bomp Bomp, anotherone bites the dust
Bomp Bomp Bomp, anotherone under the bus
Posted by: OldSpook   2013-05-13 16:18  

#6  "Could forces have been there to rescue them? Doubtful."

What the hell would YOU know about that, dipshit?

And we'll never know now, because the White House cowards idiots never tried. >:-(
Posted by: Barbara   2013-05-13 15:20  

#5  >Could forces have been there to rescue them? Doubtful.

I'm not sure about that.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2013-05-13 15:15  

#4  Why would ANYONE in their right mind want to be Minister of Lies and Prevarications White House Press Secretary?
Posted by: Alaska Paul   2013-05-13 15:02  

#3  Of course, when he leaves the White House to return to Time magazine, or wherever, he'll be the latest high profile case of toilet paper recycling inside the Beltway...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2013-05-13 13:03  

#2  Less and less useful, more and more an idiot...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2013-05-13 13:01  

#1  Paging Ron Ziegler. Ron Ziegler to the white courtesy phone, please.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2013-05-13 11:44  

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