Nope, Not Me.
This is one of those moments that kind of speaks for itself. The Politico makes a report about some extremely disparaging comments Harry "Baron Samedi" Reid made while pandering to the nutroots about General Pace. Harry calls Pace incompetent, according to the report. Greg Sargent at TPM Cafe spends pretty much all day calling this a lie based on his contacts with people on the conference call. Everyone he interviews denies that the words ever came out of Harry's mouth.
Except Greg Sargent gets a recording of Harry's talk – and the words are right there. Harry said them, there is no denying them. ALL of Greg's sources were flat wrong. Or worse. So what does Greg do?
Spin like a whirling dervish. No credibility problem with his sources. Nope. not them. It has to be the Politico's fault.
So The Politico's John Bresnahan, who wrote the original story, was right; Reid did call Pace incompetent. On the other hand, it was in the context of a discussion of Alberto Gonzales and other administration incompetents, not Iraq. The reference to Pace was an aside — brought up solely to highlight Bush's loyalty to Gonzales. Reid's focus here wasn't on Pace or the commanders.
Seems to me that the larger context suggests more clearly than the shorter snippet posted earlier by Bob Geiger, another blogger on the call, how pumped up the Politico story and headline were. Nonetheless, the truth is, Bresnahan's story was factually accurate. Though it's still unclear what Reid said about Petraeus, which is the more controversial aspect of the story, since Pace is on his way out and Petraeus is the key guy in Iraq. We were only able to obtain a tape of a limited chunk of the call.
Still outstanding question: Why didn't Reid's office just confirm that he'd said this?
It's almost anticlimactic to point out that Reid DID confirm it. But I suppose that will be for another post. Where the penguins did it or something. It's all about that truthiness and larger context. No facts need rear their ugly little heads. Like I said, speaks for itself.
By daveinboca, June 15, 2007 @ 1:04 am
The mass psychosis on the Left demands total conformity to preconceived received opinions, fixed ideas, and if the facts go against this mindset—why alter the “meaning” of the facts to fit the template of leftist psychosis.
For an incompetent like Reid to castigate Pace for incompetence is risible, and a case of psychological projection—where the female sissy Reid projects his own femininity and weakness onto a real he-man anti-gay like Pace. In fact I believe the coward GWB let Pace go because he himself is as weak and insipid as Harry Reid. Throw in Nancy P. and you have a Trifecta of weak wobbly misfits running the country.