One of the most remarkable things about Chickens**t-gate is that the Atlantic article which exposed Barack Obama and his team of simpering teenagers going all “Mean Girls” on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was, in the main, intended to help Obama. In the days since the news broke, it has been widely suggested that the purpose of leaking these juvenile antics was to send messages to Netanyahu.
Disturbingly, one of those messages appears to be, “Iran is going to get nuclear weapons, and Israel can’t stop them.” Like everything else that has happened since the 2012 election, this state of affairs is very different from Barack Obama’s campaign promises. In fact, at one point Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were telling everyone to chill out about Iranian nukes, because their infallible intelligence services would alert them the instant Iran reached the point of no return on nukes, at which point our butt-kicking action-hero President would take the Iranian nuclear program out himself. For those keeping score, that would be the same infallible intelligence services Obama recently blamed for tricking him into thinking ISIS was just al-Qaeda’s jayvee squad.
Matthew Continetti at the Washington Free Beacon published some audio today from Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes – theorized by some to be the sources of the “Netanyahu is chickens**t” comment, although the courageous superheroes of the Obama Administration still refuse to disclose the speaker’s identity – in which he told an audience of progressive activists last January that reaching a nuclear deal with Iran would mean as much as ObamaCare to the Administration:
“Bottom line is, this is the best opportunity we’ve had to resolve the Iranian issue diplomatically, certainly since President Obama came to office, and probably since the beginning of the Iraq war,” Rhodes said. “So no small opportunity, it’s a big deal. This is probably the biggest thing President Obama will do in his second term on foreign policy. This is healthcare for us, just to put it in context.”
Rhodes made the comparison as the White House was reeling from the botched rollout of the $2 billion Healthcare.gov. Polls continue to show that the health law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010, remains unpopular.
Rhodes also said the White House wants to avoid congressional scrutiny of any deal.
“We’re already kind of thinking through, how do we structure a deal so we don’t necessarily require legislative action right away,” Rhodes said. “And there are ways to do that.”
That is similar to what an unnamed senior administration official told David Sanger of the New York Times last week for a piece headlined “Obama Sees an Iran Deal That Could Avoid Congress”: “We wouldn’t seek congressional legislation in any comprehensive agreement for years.”
This would help explain why the Administration brought so much pressure to bear against Netanyahu to prevent him from taking pre-emptive action against the Iranian nuclear threat… and now mocks him as a “coward” for succumbing to their pressure. As a further demonstration of the Obama Administration’s astounding courage, Secretary of State John Kerry was assigned to apologize to Netanyahu for the ugly White House remarks today… without admitting who made them, or taking any disciplinary actions. I guess I owe the teenagers of America an apology, because referring to this White House as a pack of teenagers greatly overestimates both their maturity and intelligence.
Reuters covered Kerry’s groveling warm-up yesterday evening:
“We condemn anybody who uses language such as was used in this article,” Kerry told an audience at the annual Washington Ideas Forum in his first comment on the issue. “It does not reflect the president, it does not reflect me, it is disgraceful, unacceptable, damaging.”
“I have never heard that word around me in the White House. I don’t know who these anonymous people are who keep getting quoted, but they make life much more difficult,” Kerry added.
If Obama thought leaking his thoughts on Netanyahu, expressed through foul-mouthed proxies, would whip up a little political support from people who don’t like Israel or the sort of person who generally lives there (wink wink!), I can only surmise those Obama supporters are not going to enjoy the post-insult apology tour much.
Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) called Chickens**t-gate “yet another embarrassing display of the Obama Administration’s incompetent foreign policy” in a Time op-ed:
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told the White House press corps on Tuesday that the President likely does not know who did this, and there is no effort underway to find out. Other officials have signaled that these persons may be disciplined in ways that are have not been disclosed. But, regardless, they will continue to serve at the pleasure of the President because, as Earnest said, such things happen almost every day in this administration.
In other words, this is no big deal.
With all due respect, this is a very big deal. This is an unprecedented attack on a critical ally of the United States at a moment of international crisis. It is a de facto admission to the mullahs in Tehran that the Obama administration thinks it is too late to prevent them from acquiring nuclear weapons. It is an inexcusable betrayal of the national security of the American people.
Do the Democrats agree with what Obama administration officials are saying about Israel and its leaders? Do they also concede that a nuclear Iran is inevitable? If not, will they call on the President to identify and fire the persons making these assertions? These questions should be asked—and answered—before Americans head to the polls next Tuesday.
It is my hope that Congress can unite to reverse this administration’s approach by defending our allies and standing up to hostile actors in the world. When the White House acts recklessly, Congress should swiftly act to defend our nation. We will not be able to do so if the Senate is led by Harry Reid acting as a rubber stamp for President Obama. Either the Democrats should denounce the Obama Administration’s dangerous policies or the voters should send them home in November.
Nicely done, Senator Cruz. Pay attention, Republican leadership: this is how you handle a big story right before a major election. Always be closing. And this isn’t just political gamesmanship; Cruz is entirely correct about what the American people need to do, immediately, if they want to change the dangerous course of Obama foreign policy. A hideous mistake was made putting this man in charge of our national security, and the world is littered with the fiery wreckage of his mistakes. You really don’t want to see what the wreckage of his Iran policy is going to look like. Hint: you’ll be able to see it in the dark without a flashlight.
Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also blasted the Administration, as reported by the Times of Israel:
“We know that relations between allies can be strained at times,” the senators said in a statement released Wednesday. “But there is no excuse for Obama administration officials to insult the prime minister of Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, the way they did this week.”
“Apparently the Obama administration does not believe it has enough problems on its hands dealing with America’s enemies in the Middle East – it also wants to insult and alienate our allies. That does nothing but harm to America’s national security interests, and President Obama must put an end to it immediately.”
Israel’s International Relations Minister, Yuval Steinitz, made an interesting point: “The prime minister of Israel is not a private [citizen] and he represents the position of the democratic and sovereign State of Israel and its constant fear for its existence and security. Therefore offensive comments toward him are insults against the State of Israel and its citizens.” That’s a point even the Obama circus seems to understand with respect to virtually every other nation except Israel. They’d never dream of insulting, say, the religious or political leaders of Iran.
The Hill reports House Republican leadership has called on the White House to identify and fire the persons responsible for insulting Netanyahu. “The President sets the tone for his Administration,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH). “He either condones the profanity and disrespect used by the most senior members of his Administration, or he does not.”
“I call on President Obama to firmly repudiate these views and to instruct his staff that such comments are completely unacceptable,” added House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA). “Anonymous insults directed at allied leaders and delivered through the media are unprofessional, disgraceful, and undermine America’s interests by calling into question America’s reliability as a partner.”
Rep Kay Granger (R-TX) put the matter to Secretary of State Kerry in a letter:
Granger, who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding for the State Department, said she was “appalled” to see remarks from unnamed senior administration officials in The Atlantic this week calling Netanyahu a “chickens—” and a “coward.”
In a letter to Kerry, Granger said the officials who made the comments should be fired.
“I call on you to take immediate steps to ensure that all State Department staff and administration officials understand that there are consequences to this type of inexcusable conduct,” Granger wrote. ” I expect the administration to take action by immediately relieving the individual(s) responsible for these comments of their duty.”
Granger said she’d fire a member of her own staff for doing the same thing.
“If someone on my staff made such an ignorant statement, it would be their last act on my payroll,” Granger wrote. “There is no room for someone so ignorant and careless in U.S. foreign policy.”
Yes, but that’s not Barack Obama’s style. He’ll claim he knew nothing about any of this until he read the Atlantic article himself, declare he’s even more angry about the breach of diplomatic protocol than the Israelis, send a flunkie onto the Sunday talk shows to blame the whole thing on a YouTube video, declare the whole affair “old news” that only Fox News cares about, and fumble along to the next scandal. At worst, someone might get a few weeks of paid vacation.
