Obama Puts ’Em Up
OK, Mr. President, You’re On
Posted: November 17, 2012
Still drinking heavily of the heady wine of reelection, President Obama explicitly called out Republicans determined 1) to dig deeper into the Benghazi mess and, in so doing, 2) derail the possible appointment of U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice as secretary of State. “Go after me,” the president said.
Republicans in House and Senate — the 10th District’s Frank Wolf is leading the charge in the former — may wish to oblige, desirous as they are of a select committee to probe the terrorist attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi. But Mr. Obama reserved special umbrage for what he deemed an assault on Ms. Rice’s character. Though she served as chief administration spokesman — on the Sunday talk shows — the week after the Sept. 11 attack, the president maintained Wednesday that Ms. Rice had “nothing to do with Benghazi.”
Perhaps, but then why send her out to speak about the incident — and in ways that, in days hence, proved patently false? Who armed her with the story that the attack was prompted by protest of an anti-Islamic video?
For all Mr. Obama’s bluster, Republicans like Mr. Wolf and Sen. John McCain stand on solid inquisitory ground. Many questions about this incident still await answers. To wit:
If it is true that armed personnel in Benghazi were told to “stand down” as the outpost was under attack, who issued that order?
If, as reports say, U.S. officials on the ground in Libya believed the Benghazi consulate could not withstand a concentrated attack and thus had requested additional security, why was none provided?
Why were our personnel still in Benghazi — or the whole of Libya, for that matter — anyway? Many other allied nations had pulled out.
Republicans in House and Senate — the 10th District’s Frank Wolf is leading the charge in the former — may wish to oblige, desirous as they are of a select committee to probe the terrorist attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi. But Mr. Obama reserved special umbrage for what he deemed an assault on Ms. Rice’s character. Though she served as chief administration spokesman — on the Sunday talk shows — the week after the Sept. 11 attack, the president maintained Wednesday that Ms. Rice had “nothing to do with Benghazi.”
Perhaps, but then why send her out to speak about the incident — and in ways that, in days hence, proved patently false? Who armed her with the story that the attack was prompted by protest of an anti-Islamic video?
For all Mr. Obama’s bluster, Republicans like Mr. Wolf and Sen. John McCain stand on solid inquisitory ground. Many questions about this incident still await answers. To wit:
If it is true that armed personnel in Benghazi were told to “stand down” as the outpost was under attack, who issued that order?
If, as reports say, U.S. officials on the ground in Libya believed the Benghazi consulate could not withstand a concentrated attack and thus had requested additional security, why was none provided?
Why were our personnel still in Benghazi — or the whole of Libya, for that matter — anyway? Many other allied nations had pulled out.