The Blame Game

A search for "Who blames whom for Benghazi" turned up some interesting results. Top results are:

1. Susan Rice Blames Bad Benghazi Intelligence
2. Obama Blames the Girl - Hillary Takes the Fall
3. David Axelrod Blames State Department
4. White House Blames State Department

And my personal favorite, number 5...

Jay Carney Blames Republicans for BenghaziGate.

You had to know that was coming, right? The article is from politics.gather.com, and is written by Renee Nal. It says, "Jay Carney was asked about Vice President Joe Biden's statement on additional security requests by Benghazi staff at his press conference on Friday. Carney blamed Republicans in general, and Congressman Paul Ryan in particular, for 'politicizing' the issue to make President Obama look bad. Even worse, he blamed Republicans for denying funding for U.S. embassy security. This oft repeated statement about Embassy funding needs a fact check." Methinks that Obama doesn't need Ryan's help to make him look bad.

Jim Carney in his press conference: "This president is very concerned about the safety and security of diplomatic personnel around the world. One way to measure that is in the budget priorities that he has put forward in his budgets. And what he has done is fought every year to restore funding for diplomatic security that has been slashed by Republicans especially in the House, including Congressman Ryan."

One thing that bothers me about politicians and their spokespeople is how they cannot ever seem to just answer a question forthrightly. In this press conference, Jay Carney is asked by a reporter, "Are you saying on Libya that, basically, the buck stops with the State Department on security then - it doesn't stop with the White House?" Carney answers, "Well, that's unartful made-for-television phrasing, Ed, but the fact of the matter -" The reporter interrupts with, "...that basically, he doesn't make those assessments is what you're saying." Carney says, "There are thousands of diplomatic personnel around the world, there are countless facilities around the world and I am saying that when it comes to the number of personnel who are in place at consulates and embassies and other diplomatic facilities around the world those decisions are appropriately made at the State Department by security personnel. When it comes to funding, yeah - this President fights to make sure that embassy security and diplomatic security is adequately funded - make sure that funding is restored when efforts on capitol hill are made principally by House Republicans including Congressman Ryan to slash it in order to cut taxes for the wealthiest 2% in this country - you bet, that's the President's responsibility and he has demonstrated that he has kept that responsibility."

OyVEY. Really? The president's responsibility is funding?!? He's the Commander in Chief -- in charge of fighting for funding!! Go Barack!

The reporter wasn't quite finished... he went on to ask, "To be clear, you are saying from this podium that the President and the Vice President have never been briefed about the fact that security - more security - was needed in Benghazi. That you're saying that never in the Presidential daily briefing - never briefed." And Carney's answer... "What I'm saying is that matters of security personnel are appropriately discussed and decided upon at the State Department by those responsible for it. Obviously it is the case that everyone responsible for national security in this administration and those who I believe are knowledgable about it on capitol hill have long been aware of the fact that Libya is a dangerous place." Dance, dance, dance....

Then more talk about "classified information." It always cracks me up when things immediately become classified when they're evidence of a screw-up. Just sayin'.

I picture in my mind a cartoon I don't have the talent to draw... All the top officials in the current administration standing around, fingers pointing at one another until you get to the White House spokesman whose finger is pointed at Paul Ryan standing in the corner. You just gotta love it when there's a major snafu in the current administration, and their official position is that it's the fault of the running mate of the guy who's NOT in charge of anything. It would be really, really funny if it weren't so sad.