Obama damage control: "It's not true, it's not true, it's not true, it's old news."

 

 

http://www.politico.com/politico44/2013/05/dowd-blasts-obama-on-benghazi-163761.html?hp=r8

 

 

Dowd blasts Obama on Benghazi

By DONOVAN SLACK |

5/12/13 11:38 AM EDT

New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, just weeks after declaring President Obama "still has not learned how to govern," is out with another scathing column Sunday, this time blasting Obama on his handling of Benghazi:

Dowd takes a passing shot at press secretary Jay Carney's recent insistence that the Benghazi attack was "a long time ago," and the Clintonesque back-and-forth over edits to the Benghazi talking points, but reserves her toughest criticism for the decision-making before during and after the attack, which she calls "unworthy of the greatest power on earth:"

THE capital is in the throes of déjà vu and preview as it plunges back into Clinton Rules, defined by a presidential aide on the hit ABC show “Scandal” as damage control that goes like this: “It’s not true, it’s not true, it’s not true, it’s old news.”

...The administration’s behavior before and during the attack in Benghazi, in which four Americans died, was unworthy of the greatest power on earth. After his Libyan intervention, President Obama knew he was sending diplomats and their protectors into a country that was no longer a country, a land rife with fighters affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Yet in this hottest of hot spots, the State Department’s minimum security requirements were not met, requests for more security were rejected, and contingency plans were not drawn up... ... Hillary Clinton and Ambassador Chris Stevens were rushing to make the flimsy Benghazi post permanent as a sign of good faith with Libyans, even as it sat ringed by enemies.

The hierarchies at State and Defense had a plodding response, failing to make any superhuman effort as the siege waxed and waned over eight hours... The defense secretary at the time, Leon Panetta, insisted, “We quickly responded.” But they responded that they would not respond.