Althouse: "Pity the poor Obama administration leakers. They impart their much-cherished secrets to make their man look good..."

June 12, 2012

"Pity the poor Obama administration leakers. They impart their much-cherished secrets to make their man look good..."

"... and then, at the first chirp of criticism, are ordered to confess their (possible) crimes by the very same president they were seeking to please. In this, they are a bit like the male praying mantis. He does as asked, and then the female bites his head off."

37 comments:

bagoh20 said...: I don't know how people could ever miss that bus bearing down on them. Still, they step right in front of it.

There are now more under it than on it.; 6/12/12, 8:59 AM
David said...: "Assassination by drone has its charms — it has severely degraded al-Qaeda — and war, after all, is war. But I wonder if those presidents who knew war — a Truman, an Eisenhower, a Kennedy — would themselves boast about killing or let others do it for them. The leakers set out to blow a mighty trumpet for Obama. It came out, however, like a shrill penny whistle."

On the other hand, the writer is Richard Cohen, a real world class jerk.; 6/12/12, 9:01 AM
MadisonMan said...: the government asked the government if it was legal, and the government said it was

Who's minding the minders, as they say.; 6/12/12, 9:04 AM
pauldar said...: Somehow, this is Bush's fault. Again; 6/12/12, 9:05 AM
ndspinelli said...: The irony is this "macho" plan is a fundamentally flawed policy. We are gathering no intelligence from captured terrorists. That's how you learn about future attacks.; 6/12/12, 9:09 AM
lemondog said...: Assassination by drone...

Metaphor?

Drone

Definition:

No. 2 : one that lives on the labors of others : parasite; 6/12/12, 9:13 AM
Salamandyr said...: I agree with the main thrust of the article, which is a rare thing when it comes to Cohen, but I take exception to the idea that there is some kind of desirable "deniability" to the President being seen as hands off regarding assassination. Especially since my understanding that our assassination policy is an executive order that has not been repealed and can only be overridden by another executive order by the President, that means that of necessity all assassinations must come from the President's desk. And quite frankly that's preferable. There's little more unseemly than for government to engage in dirty, yet necessary activities, while pretending they don't.; 6/12/12, 9:15 AM
Drew said...: At first glance, it seems that Cohen is turning on his beloved president. But read closely, and it's clear that Cohen is making sure that the blame gets placed squarely on those "leakers" . . . once again, it's not Obama's fault. It's someone else's fault.; 6/12/12, 9:16 AM
edutcher said...: Leaking the Stealth technology became just another nail in Jimmah's coffin, too.; 6/12/12, 9:18 AM
traditionalguy said...: The messianic claims of Obama have been designed to draw out those with the silly belief that there is new age of Obama when the lamb lies down with the lion and all people are cared for with the common money supply.

They just see the promise in his smile. If they add up to 51% of the voters, then it happens ... until someone notices that only Obama and his cronies are the ones getting richer than ever and NOTHING is being shared in common to meet their needs.

Then there is the other silly assumption that when someone damages you $1,000, they will at least have done that for a plan that benefits them $1,000.

But no, they will damage you $1,000 for a return to them of $1, if anything. All they see is the $1 they get. This totally violates a covenant of justice in human dealings.

Obama damaged the USA off the chart to get the silliest ego boost about himself being Mr Drone Killer with his CIA Secrets Chorus.

The anger at that deed is palpable. And the evil SOB will not get a pass on that one.; 6/12/12, 9:19 AM
rhhardin said...: The plan is working okay. The whole point is to keep al Qaeda occupied watching its back instead of organizing something big.

The continual killing of its organizers does that.

We keep it up forever, potentially.

Islam depends on our success, ironically.; 6/12/12, 9:20 AM
bagoh20 said...: I thought the female mantis bit off the head in order to make her mate ejaculate. Obama the boyfriend!; 6/12/12, 9:30 AM
CWJ said...: As usual, Bagoh20 got there ahead of me and so did David. I almost did a spit take when I read "and war, after all, is war." I wonder if Cohen was even half as sanguine when there was an "R" in the month, and the subject was waterboarding.; 6/12/12, 9:31 AM
Unknown said...: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/jun/08/obama-administration-making-us-media-its-mouthpiece; 6/12/12, 9:32 AM
CWJ said...: Well Bagoh20's first post anyway. Not sure I needed the imagery of the second. Ewwww.; 6/12/12, 9:35 AM
Scott M said...: "War. War never changes."; 6/12/12, 9:36 AM
Robert Cook said...: Oh, for the day--possible only in my imagination, sadly--that the whole sick crew--Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Obama, Panetta, Brennan, and all lesser affiliated gangsters--are perp walked into jail, there to await trial for war crimes and mass murder.; 6/12/12, 9:43 AM
Patrick said...: Robert Cook,

Perhaps you are just limiting your list to the most recent presidents, but wouldn't Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Warren Christopher and Les Aspin be guilty of the same things?; 6/12/12, 9:53 AM
Crimso said...: "Oh, for the day--possible only in my imagination, sadly--that the whole sick crew--Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Obama, Panetta, Brennan, and all lesser affiliated gangsters--are perp walked into jail, there to await trial for war crimes and mass murder."

Don't forget to include anyone and everyone who has ever used Marxism as a guiding philosophy. The magnitude of their crimes is orders greater than those you named (and at least an order greater than Nazis, though it's difficult to find any of them on faculty at universities).; 6/12/12, 9:54 AM
Robert Cook said...: What's also appalling about Obama's leaking of purportedly classified info in order to make himself look good is the contrast with his ferocious prosecution of others who have leaked classified information.

I"m sure we'll see equally robust prosecution of those found in his administration who "leaked" (wink wink) this information to the press...not!; 6/12/12, 9:55 AM
Crimso said...: Johnson, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman, FDR...; 6/12/12, 9:56 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Robert Cook,

"Perhaps you are just limiting your list to the most recent presidents, but wouldn't Bill Clinton, Madeline Albright, Warren Christopher and Les Aspin be guilty of the same things?"

Absolutely.; 6/12/12, 9:56 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Don't forget to include anyone and everyone who has ever used Marxism as a guiding philosophy."

Who are you referring to?; 6/12/12, 10:00 AM
Patrick said...: Maybe I should make it easy and ask for a list of past presidents who should not be indicted!; 6/12/12, 10:00 AM
cf said...: So, a WaPo columnist is calling our president a female insect?

I am delighted because I agree, haha. somewhere around may 2009, I realized the country had elected its First Cunt President. (Gore wanted to be the historic first one, but we wouldn't let him.); 6/12/12, 10:24 AM
Roman said...: Peace can happen this afternoon. Just wave the white flag of surrender. The downside is you will have to live under rules the people who are willing to fight will impose.; 6/12/12, 10:24 AM
Mark O said...: They will round up the usual suspects and never force the NYT to reveal sources. That's what we call, in the trade, "the fix."; 6/12/12, 10:38 AM
bagoh20 said...: "Maybe I should make it easy and ask for a list of past presidents who should not be indicted!"

President Joe Bauers (aka Not Sure); 6/12/12, 10:49 AM
glenn said...: Pity someone who got aboard the USS Barry? Why exactly?; 6/12/12, 10:51 AM
Richard Dolan said...: These investigations have a life of their own. The last Washington witch hunt for a leaker was the Plame affair. The leaker was identified within two or three days (Richard Armitage), but the DoJ investigators plowed ahead anyway. They were all card-carrying members of the Best and Brightest Club, and so there must have been some purpose to it, even if its point escaped ordinary mortals. Scooter Libby was eventually snared in an obstruction/perjury case. The whole thing must have been great fun for the Dems, and now they are about to get some pay-back. Of course, the Plame game was pay-back for Whitewater, which was pay-back for Iran contra, and on it goes.

The WaPo article quotes SecDef Gates lambasting Tom Donilon, and it's a pretty good bet that Donilon (a political hack who happens to be O's national security advisor) is one of the key leakers on this go-around. Whether any of these leaks was a crime will turn on whether the 'classifying authority' had authorized the release of the information. Obama is the ultimate 'classifying authority' but, depending on the particular information at issue, hardly the only one. I'd expect to see any leaker who might get caught in the DoJ web to make an argument that any disclosure was authorized, either directly or by wink-and-nod.

If Obama loses in November, no one will much care anymore. There's no undoing the damage done by the leaks, and not much hope that the next bunch of politicos who occupy 1600 PA Ave will be all that much better.; 6/12/12, 11:01 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "I thought the female mantis bit off the head in order to make her mate ejaculate. Obama the boyfriend!"

Ha ha. Thanks for remembering one of my favorite tags.

Also, I've blogged this before:

"Then, while she is still eating, he crawls onto her back. He seems in this semiheadless state to have found a renewed vigor and sense of purpose. There will be no more showy stunts. His pale penis emerges from the rear of his body, extruded between the plates of his exoskeleton. His abdomen snakes around beside hers and forms a painful-looking curve. They begin to copulate...

"Turning her face almost 180 degrees, she regards him for a moment, as if his attentions were a distasteful surprise. Then, twisting with some difficulty, she brings her raptorial forelimbs into position and strikes again. This time she retrieves the remainder of his head and a scrap of his thorax, from which one foreleg dangles."; 6/12/12, 11:22 AM
Crimso said...: "Who are you referring to?"

Refer to the sentence of mine you quoted directly above your question. You might argue that it's not feasible, but then neither is the course you're proposing.; 6/12/12, 11:43 AM
Robert Cook said...: "Refer to the sentence of mine you quoted directly above your question. You might argue that it's not feasible, but then neither is the course you're proposing."

Who are you referring to?

Your "answer" is no answer and doesn't even make any sense that I can make of it.
Name some of these Marxists you're referring to, please.; 6/12/12, 12:07 PM
Comanche Voter said...: Well you'll recall the female reporter who said she'd gladly give Billy Jeff a blow job because he had the "right position" on abortion issues. In essence she was willing to "take one for the team".

The Obama folks in the White House and on Team Obama are sort of like Russian soliders in penal battalions who were ordered to march in front of the Russian advance to blow up any minefields.

Field Marshal Petrovich Obamsky doesn't much care what happens to them as long as he can march to re-election. And of course Field Marshal Obamsky would find it "offensive" if someone were to suggest he was being careless with his soldier's lives.; 6/12/12, 12:28 PM
gerry said...: The lefts eats its own.; 6/12/12, 1:15 PM
Matt Sablan said...: No pity. If they were told to leak it, I hope they got it in writing, signed and dated.; 6/12/12, 1:15 PM
Cedarford said...: Dolan - "If Obama loses in November, no one will much care anymore. There's no undoing the damage done by the leaks, and not much hope that the next bunch of politicos who occupy 1600 PA Ave will be all that much better."

Not true on either count.
Starting with the last. Some Administrations have been very leaky....Carter, Clinton, Dubya, Obama...
Others run a very tight ship. HW Bush comes to mind. It was your head if you leaked under Pappy Bush, even if you were a longtime friend.

On the 1st matter, certain scandals live on long after a change of Administrations - as a way to attach moral opprobrium to political enemies. Use of Watergate, Clinton's blow job, Carter's leaks, Bush&CHeney 'abusing' 3 terrorists in interrogations endures as a political tool past one Election cycle.; 6/12/12, 3:45 PM