Patterico's Pontifications

12/26/2012

Obama Administration Plays Clintonian Word Games Over Whether Officials “Resigned” Over Benghazi

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:35 am



The New York Post reports:

The four officials supposedly out of jobs because of their blunders in the run-up to the deadly Benghazi terror attack remain on the State Department payroll — and will all be back to work soon, The Post has learned.

The highest-ranking official caught up in the scandal, Assistant Secretary of State Eric Boswell, has not “resigned” from government service, as officials said last week. He is just switching desks. And the other three are simply on administrative leave and are expected back.

The four were made out to be sacrificial lambs in the wake of a scathing report issued last week that found that the US compound in Benghazi, Libya, was left vulnerable to attack because of “grossly inadequate” security.

State Department leaders “didn’t come clean about Benghazi and now they’re not coming clean about these staff changes,” a source close to the situation told The Post., adding, the “public would be outraged over this.”

Will the public be outraged? I figure there will be public outrage only if the media shows outrage. And the media, Fox News aside, probably won’t.

Speaking of Fox News, they questioned the State Department about this. And the State Department said, and I quote: “Suckers!” OK, not exactly, but close. Basically, they said: hey, it’s not our fault if you assumed resigned meant “resigned”:

Asked for comment, a State Department spokesman referred FoxNews.com to the statement originally put out on Dec. 19.

That statement said that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton “has accepted Eric Boswell’s decision to resign as Assistant Secretary for Diplomatic Security, effective immediately,” and that the three others were “relieved of their current duties.”

The statement did not specifically claim Boswell was leaving the department — at the same time, it made no mention of Boswell being reassigned to another desk.

Obama learned in the campaign that people for some reason still love Bill Clinton. I guess he figures that extends to the less attractive aspects of Clinton’s administration, like the parsing and lying.

So if Obama ends up getting serviced by a rotund intern while telling John Kerry on the phone how to word the next misleading press release, don’t be surprised. He’ll just be bringing us back to the glory days of the Clinton years.

P.S. Weren’t there people who supposedly left over Fast and Furious? Where are they now?

35 Responses to “Obama Administration Plays Clintonian Word Games Over Whether Officials “Resigned” Over Benghazi”

  1. Hooray for Bubba! Bring back the perjury! More obstruction of justice!

    Patterico (c9423c)

  2. This is pathetic, but it’s equally pathetic that the media and the public allow it.

    DRJ (a83b8b)

  3. When you never had to grow up and face real consequences this is how you behave. Kinda like the five year old seeing how much he can get away with.

    glenn (647d76)

  4. 3.When you never had to grow up and face real consequences this is how you behave. Kinda like the five year old seeing how much he can get away with.

    At this point, I really have a hard time blaming the Lefty politicians. The media has conditioned them that nothing is too far, and no matter what, the media will protect and cover for them.

    It didn’t use to be that way. Gary Hart was punished for his arrogant belief that he could do and say anything and the media would protect him. But the Rubicon was crossed when the media and political left joined forces to protect Bill Clinton.

    gahrie (3fff08)

  5. Well Gary Hart, was every bit the moonbat, that Kerry was, but this about the loss of a major outpost in North Africa,

    narciso (3fec35)

  6. Nobody cares. It’s Christmas ! Or something.

    Anybody who believes anything this government says deserves what they get. The rest of us will get it, too, but there you are.

    It’s time to read “The Pit and the Pendulum” again.

    Mike K (5552a4)

  7. And Hillary remains MIA… Why couldn’t she testify via video conferencing, Skype, etc? This is the age of technology after all. What’s shocking is not that there is a cover up of sorts taking place, but just how little effort is being put into covering their tracks – because so little is required. Who, other than some fringe rightwingers and devastated families, really care what happened in Benghazi?

    Dana (292dcf)

  8. The Estates of the four who were killed in Benghazi should file Wrongful-Death claims, and then suits, against the four who “resigned their current position/placed on administrative leave” and any named individuals in the Benghazi Report by the IG; plus Hillary (that is, if she’s available and not undergoing an attack of terminal-dandruff).

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  9. Also, the media needs to be reminded that if the U.S.Government is not willing to extend its forces to protect an Ambassador, what efforts do they think will be expended to protect them in the various hot-spots of the world.

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  10. The Weekly Standard wonders where she is, too, and whether she can carry out her official duties.

    In her absence, she’s still been putting out an occasional statement under her own name–but none related to her health. On December 21, she released a written message for Japan National Day and a statement on Kerry’s nomination to replace her. A few days before that, on December 17, she released a statement on the death of Senator Daniel Inouye.

    So, what’s Hillary Clinton’s status? Her situation is serious enough to sideline her for two weeks, but we still don’t know what’s going on. How serious is it? Does it prevent her carrying out the secretary of state duties?

    Clinton has long-planned to step down as secretary of state “days” after Inauguration Day. The question is, will we even see her before then?

    Dana (292dcf)

  11. Has Hillary been “disappeared”?

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  12. askeptic, even as we speak, there is a guy in the White House using whiteout on all the photographs he can find …

    SPQR (768505)

  13. Uhh, SPQR, shouldn’t he be using “black out”?

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  14. askeptic, let’s diagram this out …

    SPQR (768505)

  15. Holding the wrong people accountable for doing the right things and not holding the right people accountable for doing the wrong things have proven to be two hallmarks of this administration.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  16. Obama Administration….Accountability….

    Are those two even compatible?

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  17. Vizzini, ‘those words you are using, yadda, yadda.

    narciso (3fec35)

  18. The Hillary thing very much interests me and my antennae are vibrating. Though even before the election she had stated that she would like to step down as SOS in an Obama second term, I am starting to wonder if she really meant it– and if in fact she is officially being pushed sooner and harder after Benghazi and several other state dept. debacles. Something just does not smell right about her lengthy absence and her mysterious illness and the media’s lack of curiosity about it all. It’s almost as if they’ve been told not to be very curious or sumpin.

    elissa (32e69f)

  19. Progressives in America ARE NEVER ACCOUNTABLE for their actions. These guys will get large bonuses and cushy assignments and get on with life while those people they helped kill will get, well, nothing…

    Gregory knows this lesson and was counting on it when he KNOWINGLY VIOLATED DC GUN CONTROL LAWS.

    WarEagle82 (97b777)

  20. Weren’t there people who supposedly left over Fast and Furious? Where are they now?

    In Newtown, planting evidence looking for assault weapons.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  21. I guess Holder will stay on, since there is no one Obama can find that is equally corrupt.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  22. I read this in the paper this morning. This is certainly news, and not what was thought. A reading of the New York Post article would suggest that the The House Foreign Affairs Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen was taken by surprise.

    It sems like they got some kind of a soundbiite about people being removed – and some of tehm at least would have been scapegoats – and yet it isn’t true.

    My timeline now needs not to be corrected – but added to at today’s date. This is because I think this was real intentional misleading. I need to get in the words Accountability review Board but this needs a separate entry later.

    I think I got the information about the dismissals from the New York Times.

    It reads:

    December 19 State Department report comes out. Makes numerous recommendations, including that State Department should not rely on specific knowledge of dangers but on a more general assessment of possibilities and that they relied on untrained people (it is usual to rely on non-Americans, so that’s not considered a problem in itself)

    Hillary Clinton says she accepts them all. A lot of the problem, it is said, was because the location was regarded as temporary. There are 29 recommendations.

    Four State Department officials resign – three people concerned with diplomatic security and one concerned with the area that included Libya. (Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of State for Diplomatic Security resigned. Charlene R. Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary for embassy security, wss relieved of her duties, as well as another official in the diplomatic security office, whome officials would not name. And Raymond Maxwell, a deputy assistant secretary who had responsibility for North Africa, also resigned. Nobody more senior, whose responsibilities extended beyond what was involved here, was affected, but only people whose
    responsibilities did not extend beyond the matters at issue.)

    Hillary Clinton claims a concussion early in the week from a fall in her home and is excused from testifying – some Senators are suspicious and want her to testify before they will hold hearings on somebody else’s nomination as Secretary of State.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  23. 22. Yes I heard that last week, before Kerry was named.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  24. 18. Comment by elissa (32e69f) — 12/26/2012 @ 11:15 am

    The Hillary thing very much interests me and my antennae are vibrating.

    I’m just wondering if she’s hiding a terminal illness – and would she?

    Or maybe she’s not hiding a terminal illness, but wants someone else to think that she is.

    Sammy Finkelman (d22d64)

  25. “I’m just wondering if she’s hiding a terminal illness – and would she?”

    Sammy – Nah, I think she’s just using the concussion as an excuse to get busy with a hot male nurse at the house in Chappaqua and sees no reason to interrupt her fun to get grilled by a bunch of Congress weenies.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  26. “I’m just wondering if she’s hiding a terminal illness – and would she?”

    Sammy – She might have been stocking up on pant suits at pre-Christmas sales and may not have wanted to interrupt her shopping with a trip to Washington.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  27. She’s just trying to run out the clock to avoid testifying on her mistakes. No reason to create all those attack-ad soundbites. She’s quite done with the job and the bureaucrats are running things until Kerry gets confirmed, and the first thing the bureaucrats have done is protect their own. S.O.BS.

    Kevin M (bf8ad7)

  28. Hillary is full legacy-control mode. 2016 ain’t that far away.

    Bingo (84698f)

  29. P.S. Weren’t there people who supposedly left over Fast and Furious? Where are they now?

    Handling the Benghazi desk, of course.

    Bill M (e0a4e5)

  30. How is that CNN can not only report to us why Bush Sr. Is in the hospital, that heis bantering with doctors, and how he is being treated and prognosis but are not the least bit curious about our Secrertary of State?

    The biggest and most critical elements missing from moder journalism are curiosity and will

    http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2012/12/26/bush-41-spends-christmas-in-hospital/?hpt=hp_t2

    Dana (292dcf)

  31. Since when did the Ministry of Propaganda tell us what we want to know?
    Their mission is to tell us just what we need to know.

    askeptic (b8ab92)

  32. A sideways “promotion” with a substantial pay boost for keeping one’s mouth shut is a time-honored tradition and one the Obama Administration used to great effect in Fast and Furious.

    daleyrocks (bf33e9)

  33. the longer they work the bigger their pension so these piggy piggy federal workers really need to hang in as long as possible

    this is the fundamental principle of government

    happyfeet (b6f0da)

  34. This is also a good time to get in a little plastic surgery for the 2016 election so she doesn’t look so haggard and tired and wrinkly.

    and it’ll have enough time for it to ‘set’ and look natural by then.

    luagha (5cbe06)


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