When You've Lost Maureen Dowd...

Team Obama's Benghazi cover-up has Maureen Dowd reminiscing about Bush and Cheney:

Complicity in Duplicity?

By MAUREEN DOWD

A woman named Rice in a top administration job, ambitious to move up to secretary of state, hitting the Sunday talk shows to aggressively promote a Middle East narrative that’s good for the president but destined to crumble under scrutiny.

Accusations that intelligence on Al Qaeda links in the Middle East was cherry-picked by American officials to create a convenient reality.

A national security apparatus that becomes enmeshed with the political image-making machine.

Sound familiar?

Eerie. Ms. Dowd includes some Bush-bashing to make the medicine go down a bit more easily for her audience:

Last time it was Condoleezza Rice helping her war-obsessed bosses spin their deceptive web, as they recklessly tried to re-engineer the Middle East. This time it was Susan Rice offering a noncredible yarn as the Obama team desperately tries to figure out the Middle East.

W.’s administration played up Al Qaeda ties, exploiting 9/11 to invade Iraq, which the neocons had wanted to do all along. The Obama administration sidestepped Al Qaeda ties in the case of the Libyan attack to perpetuate the narrative that the president had decimated Al Qaeda when Osama bin Laden was killed, and to preclude allegations that they were asleep at the switch on the anniversary of 9/11. Better to blame it all on a spontaneous protest to an anti-Islam video on YouTube.

It’s remarkable that President Obama, who came to power abhorring the manipulative and duplicitous tactics of the Bush crowd, should now be vulnerable to similar charges.

Remarkable? Obama has made history with his use of warrantless wiretaps and broken new ground with his decision to target Americans overseas for death. And now Ms. Dowd is surprised?

Geez, wait 'til she learns Gitmo is still open...

Comments

[Annoying Old Guy]

How can you put "Dowd" and "learn" together in the same sentence?

[GMAX]

So its Rice a irony for Dowd? Figures.

[narciso]

Well if that's the template it takes to ge people to buy the story, 'if needs must' if Harry Pierce would say.

[NK]

First his father dies, now MoDo shivs JEF comparing him to BUSHITLER!! Pinch will need a spell on the NYT fainting couch.

PS: Punch Sulzberger RIP-- he was a mid-20th century liberal, but a United States Marine(pacific '44-'46,Korea'53), an honest man and an American. RIP.

[narciso]

Crikeu, how much do they pay her, to put out this tripe, on second thought I'd rather not know.

[Captain Hate]

Anybody shocked that MoDo gets almost everything about Condi wrong?

[Jim Eagle]

NK,

I knew Punch. He had a house on Gin Lane in Southampton and was a regular at Sip N' Soda where the morning coffee seating at the counter is more powerful than a Bilderberg Group meeting. He was also a very close friend of another friend of mine (who will go unmentioned to protect the innocence). They did bizness together in the NY Metro Region. Not of the same politics but still biznessmen and my friend used to tell me that Punch was disappointed in how his bizness empire was being mis-managed just like my friend's biznesses were being mismanaged by their respective progeny.

/R.I.P. Punch

[narciso]

Well it's rife with category error, Captain, it's as if Condi had said four jets had crashed due to mechanical issues, plus the documents recovered from Iraq, showed there were any links to Zawahiri's outfit, the EIJ, what Silva called the
'Sword of Gaza', as well as Hekmatyar's one of the
Taliban partners.

[NK]

CH-- very fair point about Condi. MoDo fabricates stuff to attack Condi, because Condi is everything Modo isn't, smart, learned, and right about the world. hence, Condi's a target for Modo's pathetic junior HS girly attacks.

[squaredance]

"You do not have to read but more than a sentence of her so-called "writings"--nay, just one clause--to learn that Dowd is an unalloyed, liberal imbecile and rabid left wing partisan"?

(Just guessing)

[bgates]

the narrative that the president had decimated Al Qaeda when Osama bin Laden was killed

I wonder how many saps ever really believed that a 21st century, transnational, ideologically driven organization would be crippled by the death of the guy at the top who made all their videos.

I wonder how many of them dumped their Apple stock when Steve Jobs died.

[James D.]

Anybody shocked that MoDo gets almost everything about Condi wrong?

Fixed it for you...

[NK]

JiB-- no surprise at your report. That's the stuff I heard about Punch in the 90s until just after 9/11, when his health seemed to begin to get fragile. He was a real man -- obviously his politics were hopelessly liberal-- but he was entiitled to respect.

[sbw]

MoDo? Talking about what MoDo wrote? Civilization is indeed threatened.

[narciso]

She does inadvertently illustrate projection,

As with this, since Corzine or Mozilo, and company 'are free as a bird'

http://patterico.com/2012/10/03/newly-discoveredobama-video-rich-people-are-all-for-nonviolence-why-wouldnt-they-be-theyve-got-what-they-want/comment-page-1/#comment-1066482

[Jim Eagle]

Another video over at Patterico.

“Rich people are all for nonviolence. Why wouldn’t they be? They’ve got what they want."

From 2002. Just warming up.

[Jim Eagle]

Dang it, narciso beat me again:)

Note that Rob Crawford is commenting over at Patterico.

[narciso]

I'm sure, it's just a misunderstanding

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/03/3032190/fbi-offers-reward-for-mass-terrorism.html

[narciso]

Sorry about that, jiB, this is the way it floats up in my fishwrap;

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/02/3031581/conservatives-seize-on-obama-video.html

[narciso]

As I recall, isn't there a law regarding that;

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/10/02/3030904/federal-government-to-buy-ill.html

[Soylent Red]

I wonder how many saps ever really believed that a 21st century, transnational, ideologically driven organization would be crippled by the death of the guy at the top who made all their videos.

A lot, I suspect. One of the dangers of developing a person like OBL into the focal point of the WoT is that it completely overtakes what should be the focus, the ideology driving the actions. Since GWB insisted on downplaying the ideology, AQ became an organization "led by a madman." Thus, by killing the madman, the problem magically goes away.

This also plays right into American war weariness. OBL dead? Cool, war's over. Let's get back to normal.

Also, many of the folks on the other side of the aisle don't even really believe in the 21st century, transnational, ideologically driven organization. It was just a construct of Bushitler so that he could kill brown people and wage a war for oil.

[bgates]

Say what you will about Mary Margaret McSpinster, but it can't be easy to write a 1000 word column while wearing a 25 year old unused wedding gown, drinking a bottle of scotch, and sobbing every time she pauses long enough for the screen saver pic of Michael Douglas to come up.

[NK]

bgates@11:13-- double LOL! Plus--it's all true.

[Melinda Romanoff]

bgates-

That's cold.

[narciso]

I don't know too much about this last outfit,

http://unskewedpolls.com/

the problem, is you're right, Soylent, Vietnam went on for about as long, however, as the saying
goes 'you may not be interested in war, but war (or warriors) are interested in you.'

[Captain Hate]

O/T Laura Ingraham's incessant whining about what Romney's campaign has to do after her idiotic poll dancing finally drove me away. In her place I've been listening, at the advice of some fellow morons and moronettes, to Chris Plante streaming out of WMAL (a station I remember from when I lived in Maryland) and he's pretty entertaining and informative. Any other suggestions for the morning?

[Danube of Thought]

I wonder how often she reflects on why it is she can't find a man. At least nightly, one hopes.

[narciso]

Our morning lead into Beck, is kind of an Eeyore,
down here, I haven't listened to him, since I already know what he's going to say, and what he's got wrong. WMAL is where Eli Lake, who has had the best stuff on Benghazi shows up on occasion,

[Rick Ballard]

Polling Interuption

Here are the Partisan ID splits for Gallup and Rasmussen for Septembers of election years back to '04. Gallup is at D+4 and Rasmussen at R+3. Rasmussen has been much closer to the final result in November than has Gallup. Any national poll with a partisan split above D+4 deserves close scrutiny and very marginal weight.

Gallup			
	Rep	Dem	
9/04	39	31	+8
9/06	31	34	-3
9/08	28	35	-7
9/10	29	30	-1
9/12	28	32	-4
			
			
Rasmussen			
			
9/04	37	38	-1
9/06	32	37	-5
9/08	33	39	-6
9/10	33	35	-2
9/12	37	34	+3

My model is currently showing the race at 52/46 for Romney based upon Obama at 40% among whites. (The 40% is drawn from Gallup's demographic splits). I'd much rather be playing Governor Romney's hand than BOzo's in this contest.

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

Excuse my ignorance - but did "Punch" really spawn "pinch"? And which one is having the affair with Caroline Kennedy?

[Threadkiller]

CH, Mark Larson runs a very good morning show for San Diego. He knows a lot of national people. The topics have a wide range.

http://www.marklarson.com/

[Jim Eagle]

CH,

Beside Boortz? You have Beck and his goofiness.

There is also America's Morning News which is a Washington Times operation but they have Lanny Davis on too much which is like having cold water thrown on you just as you were getting to the good part in your dream:)

[Threadkiller]

...and he is a close friend to Ann Romney's brother. It makes for quality insight.

[Jim Eagle]

Jane,

Pinch is Punch, Jr. If you ever saw them up close together there is no doubt. Pinch and Caroline are close friends:)

[matt]

al Quaeda is essentially a franchise operation anyway. You send in your application and get a secret decoder ring and phone number to call for your orders.

Most of the planning has been done by individuals and groups seeking specific targets for their own reasons using the maximum damage theory from the AQ cookbook.

The scouts case the target and then an operations type makes it happen. OBL blessed or helped facilitate them with his contacts and money and now those contacts and accounts have another keeper.

Some of it is from the Soviet handbook. Small cells, contact only when necessary, etc. The Russians were very good at this and AQ are pretty damned smart. Always steal from the best.

[Dorothy, Dorothy, Dorothy.]

Maureen Dowdy,
Wontcha say howdy?
Dumb blah,
Waitin' on a call.
=========

[Clarice]

Pinch, it seems, Jane.

And yes, Pinch is a chip off the old Punch.

bgates, fabuloso!

[Melinda Romanoff]

matt-

With the current street fairs in Tehran, some of those franchisee's dividend checks are going to start to bounce.

[Sue]

Mike Gallagher is on 660 The Answer out of the DFW area (you can listen via the internet) starting at 10:00 CT. Of course Mark Davis does his morning show on the same station now, but I don't think you like Mark. Mark probably has more local stuff than you would like anyway.

[Go get 'em, Gussie.]

Dang, shoulda been 'Big Blah,'
==========

[Danube of Thought]

So Raz has Obama up 2 with an R+3 model?

[narciso]

True, Matt, it's as if Black September, whose mastermind, Salameh was trained by Egyptian Mukharabat but his underlings, 'Issa' and co, trained in Libya, among other places in the only
game in town, like the DGI camps, in Cuba, or the
ones for the Brigatte Rosse in Czechoslovakia.

[Old Lurker]

Cap'n, Chris Plant is my regular morning guy when I am in DC but fair warning...he gets tiring. He falls into the talker trap like Hannity of inviting libs on so he can have a screaming match with them and that wears thin.

[narciso]

This old post, from 2009, illustrates the point, in the LUN

[Have Blue]

CH - Jim Vicevitch (sp?) on WTIC in Connecticut does a pretty libertarian perspective. He was a long time TV reporter.

He has MS and a few other health issues so has fill ins fairly regularly.

[Captain Hate]

I think Mike Gallagher gets carried by one of the stations here. Do any of you listen to Plante? He's pretty good and whoever screens his calls even gets some reasonably intelligent libs on.

Is Howie Carr streamed over the interwebbz?

[Have Blue]

CH- Forgot to say Vicevitch is the 0900 to 1200 show on WTIC. (Actually not sure about the start time, might be 1000. I work second and am rarely out driving at that time.)

[Captain Hate]

OL, if he goes full Hannity I'll drop him as quickly as I would the JEF at hoops.

[jimmyk]

Hadn't seen this one before:

[Captain Hate]

Somebody needs to hack MoDo's pc and install a Catherine Zeta-Jones screen saver.

[Janet]

This is interesting -

Why Was Obama‘s Audio Book Version of ’Dreams From My Father’ Purged of All References to Communist Mentor?

Original text version (1995): “It was the same dilemma that old Frank had posed to me the year I left Hawaii.”

Audio version (2005): “It was the same dilemma posed to me the year I left Hawaii.”

[Have Blue]

Actually I was going to mention Vicetich to Jane when she was talking about finding another radio gig. He is in the area and uses a bunch of guest hosts due to medical issues. I know a bunch of them have never done any radio at all and it shows at times.

[Clarice]

Behind the scenes at BO debate prep :http://www.michellesmirror.com/2012/10/totus-tips-for-successful-debate.html

[Janet]

...he gets tiring. He falls into the talker trap like Hannity of inviting libs on so he can have a screaming match with them and that wears thin.

Same for me OL. I can hardly listen to him. I've seen him on TV & he was very good. On the radio he just goes on & on.

[matt]

I wonder if the Democratic Party has an Ebonics class after last night's broadcast of Obama's speech.

You have Biden doing it. Gore was doing it. and Now Barack "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy" talking like he's from the 'hood.That sort of blows Joe's narrative to all those bitter clingers to smithereens.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--So its Rice a irony for Dowd?--

Gmax, that was one of the best puns I've seen in quite some time.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--This is interesting -

Why Was Obama‘s Audio Book Version of ’Dreams From My Father’ Purged of All References to Communist Mentor?--

Poor Frank goes the way of all old Stalinists and drops down the memory hole.
No doubt any photos were long since purged.
Can we start calling him Uncle Barack?

[MAM]

I went to bed last night emmediately after reading DOT's striking, expletive-filled statement. I slept like a baby and woke up feeling rather optimistic today (thanks DOT). It's my birthday today and Mitt is going to give me a great birthday present tonight by appearing to the viewing audience as what he is - a decent, honorable, smart businessman who solves big problems. Go Mitt!

[Captain Hate]

Incredible that all references to the ol' commie perv have been deleted from the GREATEST AUTOBIOGRAPHY EVARRR. Weren't we brought up to believe only the Soviets did that and it could never happen here? Come back, squaredance; you were right after all.

Didn't like my "poll dancing", Iggy? Grumble grumble...

[rse]

Janet-the book Defying Dixie I just finished had mentions of Frank M Davis back when he was editor of the Atlanta News. Rather graphic quote.

Plus Kengor's book. Plus John Drew makes the hugely important point that bo has no conversion experience. There is never a point he can point to and say this is when I changed my mind and wised up.

It is a continuous connection to Marxism and it is manifested in many of his policies and practices. Especially at the small print level and what is going operational in a 2nd term.

This socio-cultural view that everything we are is a product of our environment and social interactions literally denies anything of independent, intrinsic value.

How abhorrent but it permeates not just his ed policies but his environmental and economic. The Chinese openly say all this systems thinking is their dialectical materialism in its function.

[Janet]

Embassies Facing Security Cuts Waste Money on Chevy Volts

Like the Pentagon. Busy with nonsense.
Don't even have the words...

[Rob Crawford]

Anybody shocked that MoDo gets almost everything about Condi wrong?

Dowd is a creature of the herd. She cannot know anything the herd has not blessed as pravda, and will never express anything that the herd will disapprove of.

Her function is to keep the herd together, by reminding them of what they all believe.

[marlene]

CH,Howie Carr is livestreamed on howiecarr.us (WRKO AM 680). We listen in Maine.

[Rob Crawford]

Note that Rob Crawford is commenting over at Patterico.

I do that on occasion, when I can swallow by anger at the way Patterico treated Jeff from Proteinwisdom, and my revulsion over the creature known as "happyfeet".

[Sue]

Happy birthday MAM.

::note to Hit, today is MAM's birthday, update the list::

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

--Didn't like my "poll dancing", Iggy? Grumble grumble...

Posted by: Captain Hate | October 03, 2012 at 12:11 PM--

I missed it CH. Went back and what a treat to have two world class puns on one thread.

Gman's does have the advantage of a musical note to it, but I can't say the idea of Laura Ingraham doing any type of pole, poll or even Pole dance is entirely without its attractions either. :)

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

Have Blue: I missed this: "Vicetich". Who is that?

[NK]

Oooooooooooh... "Poll" dancing...... now I get it.

[Danube of Thought]

Happy birthday, MAM. Sorry for the undeleted expletive. Once in a very great while....

[Jane - Get off the couch your country needs you!]

Happy Birthdat MAM!

I went back and read Have Blue - where in CT is Vicetech?

(I'm actually quite busy doing real work these days so I can skim at best)

[centralcal]

Happy Birthday, MAM.

[hit and run]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAM!!!

[marlene]

Happy Birthday MAM!

[Ranger]

So Raz has Obama up 2 with an R+3 model?

No. My understanding is those numbers are what Ras is getting out of his voter self ID survey, when calibrated for actual national demographics.

Ras is still using a D + 3 to 4 for his daily head to head polls.

'Blending' the two tells you that if Ras has Obama up by 1 or 2 in his daily poll, then Romney is probably actually up 1 to 2.

[NK]

Insta links to Ace who links to Reuters. Effin' Reuters is covering the Benghazi ambush story while the US Legacy Media locks down the story so it can't breath. I hate the effin' Legacy media. here's Ace: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/333411.php

[C.R.]

And Althouse has found the excuse she's been looking for:

AM I THE ONLY ONE OF THE INSTAPUNDIT BLOGGERS AND GUEST-BLOGGERS who loathes the Daily Caller’s exploitation of the 2007 video of Barack Obama stirring up the black churchfolk? I don’t think this is helping Mitt Romney with the swing voters at all. Like last week’s playing and replaying of the Obamaphone lady’s ravings, it repels me from Republicans. I’m a swing voter — I voted for Obama in 2008 and Bush in 2004 — and I am genuinely undecided this year. Those of you who are pleased with these seemingly exciting new weapons to use in the fight to defeat Obama are losing perspective. You are not thinking about how you look to the people you need to convince. Here’s a clue: You look ugly. at Instapundit

[maryrose]

Happy Birthday Mam!
When Romney does well tonight against the ebonic, trash talking fraud I will tune in to see the long faces on Messnbc. Their job will be nearly impossible in the next 30 days. Dragging Oblammy's sorry ass across the finish line will prove overwhelming difficult and they will fall short of their goal. With a Romney administration, our real recovery will begin. After 4 fake summer recoveries this will be a welcome change.
New polls prove the meme of the race being over has failed again. Is there anything the left succeeds at other than lying?

[Captain Hate]

HB MAM

Shorter Althouse: Does this blog make my ass look fat?

[Ranger]

You are not thinking about how you look to the people you need to convince. Here’s a clue: You look ugly.

Translation: You're making me feel stupid for voting for Obama.

[Sue]

Here’s a clue: You look ugly.

And how does Obama look to you? You hold this tape against Romney? You weren't voting for Romney to begin with. Swing voter my ass.

[centralcal]

WE look ugly? Well, of course we do, C.R., in Althouse's view. After all, how dare anyone point out what a racist Barack Obama is - that is just racist!

How dare anyone look at a video of the Obamaphone lady? How dare anyone look at a video of an Obama speech where he acts all race-y. I mean, how dare we. Turn away! Shield our eyes! Hide it from everyone! Then, Althouse will feel so much better about us.

feh!

[Janet]

Happy Birthday, MAM!

[NK]

AnnA was worthwhile when she had a ringside seat to the Madison anti-walker madness. Otherwise, she's kinda of a dingbat academic. And yes, as captH points out,her post is the equivalent of does this make my ass look fat.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

I prefer by a wide margin a true believing ideologue like Dowd or Kathy Kattenberg to an unprincipled windsock like Althouse or Noonan.

Of course that's like saying I prefer getting a filling to having my wisdom teeth out but still there's a point in there somewhere.

[maryrose]

Althouse needs to buy a clue. The only ugliness here is the words of and slang voice of Obama. Normal thinking people cringe at his voice mannerisms and his hate speech. My husband was appalled at the recording on Hannity. The most effective tactic Hannity used was airing the 2007 and a 2009 version of Obama speaking. It showed the fraudulent nature of Obama to be revealed for all to see. Get the video up on UTube and let the people see their emperor in all his ebonic offensive glory.I guarantee Independents will cringe.

[Melinda Romanoff]

Oh goodie.

Turkish foreign minister contacts NATO after mortar strike from Syria.

[Porchlight]

I wonder how many of them dumped their Apple stock when Steve Jobs died.

Ha. Stealing that.

[Ignatz Ratzkiwatzki]

Ann would have been great as Stalin's airbrush girl for the history books.

[Porchlight]

Didn't someone here exactly predict Althouse's reaction to the video?

She is such a tool.

[Have Blue]

Jane - Sorry typo. Actual spelling is Vicevich. Name is Jim Vicevich. His web site is Radio Vice Online at (oddly enough) radioviceonline.com.

His show is called Sound Off Connecticut and is the morning talk show on WTIC 1080 out of Hartford. Mostly call ins and on air interviews. He does regular on air interviews with on of the guys off of Powerline, and really promotes blogging as a way of getting messages out and built.

[Porchlight]

Happy birthday, MAM! So glad you have joined us.

[Rob Crawford]

How dare anyone look at a video of the Obamaphone lady?

Moe Lane just made a great point on this -- filming someone acting like an idiot is not 'racist'.

As it has just turned October, it is time for Althouse to find a reason to vote for Obama. Apparently it will be over how "ugly" it is to point out Obama's hatred and bigotry.

Ahh... Bill Whittle has commented over at Ann's site...

[Jim Eagle]

The latest "lower expectations", Ron Browstein tweets:

National Journal ‏@nationaljournal
.@RonBrownstein says polling question of "are you better off?" is less relevant because ppl have lowered expectations #CoHeartland

I have lowered expectations that the media in any form will actually do the job of an unbiased and relevant press.

[Ranger]

Remember, Althouse was the one who said, literally, about a year ago that 'If I had known that any criticism of Obama would be declared racist once he was in office, I never would have voted for him' (to which Instapundit replied with his post from 2008 explaining that one of the main reasons to vote agains Obama was that once he was in office, any criticism of him would be dismissed as racist).

She really did buy into the whole 'post-racial healer' BS. These videos prove her a fool, which is why they make "us" look ungly. The one thing academics hate is being made to look foolish.

[C.R.]

I knew the take away would be somehow that the Republicans are racists. Speaking of inane, Juan Williams said last night on Hannity something to the effect of that if would be perfectly fine for someone speaking to an Italian American audience to speak in an Italian accent. Lord, can you imagine? I guess that type of thinking is how Biden came up with his Joe Bidenopoulos idea.

[rse]

I don't think that rant shows Althouse in the best light but I am sure it makes life in Madison more palatable. Especially if she has students who ask her about the tape.

She works at a diversity infused workplace and has lots of students who are defensive about that kind of a tape and overt racist appeal.

And the Fisher SCOTUS argument is next week. Since this Admin has rejected individual thinking and made socio-cultural knowledge their theory of education, I think they should be honest in their SCOTUS arguments and tell the court the truth. That it is no longer about the transmission of knowledge and they thus need maximum flexibility to get that all important environment right. That students are not individuals but merely parts of the collective created on campus and that it is important that the admitted parts reflect different identity groups.

Somehow I do believe Thomas already knows this intuitively even if he has never heard of Bronfenbrenner. That he got tired of being treated as chattel growing up and hates the idea of now being deemed a representative part with a role to play because of the melanin in his skin.

I am being a little snarky but truly the diversity arguments only make sense when the colleges and universities own up to what they are really doing. Of course then the trashing of the essence of the Constitution would be unavoidable.

But Kagan and Sotomayor understand BEST. Probably by name.

HB MAM.

[Dave (in MA)]

Not only is Howie Carr streamed live, but his show is available afterwards on demand at wrko.com. One possible problem with Howie for non-MA folks is one of his strengths is covering the local "hack-O-rama". He's the best there is at covering the local political and organized crime (but I repeat myself) scenes.

[pagar]

Happy Birthday, MAM!

[Melinda Romanoff]

Happy Birthday, MAM!

[Porchlight]

Speaking of inane, Juan Williams said last night on Hannity something to the effect of that if would be perfectly fine for someone speaking to an Italian American audience to speak in an Italian accent.

It would? What the hell world does Juan live in?