So he got fired by press leak. We don’t get the American Idol-esque hand wringing about how he got voted off the show by MoDo, Elisabeth Drew, et al. People can’t be worked up honestly over a Gitmo punt as a unique policy setback. Obama’s compromised already on so many major portions of his campaign. Even now he’s about to tank on the Patriot Act. An alleged Craig mismanaged rollout on Gitmo? Join the queue. And Gitmo isn’t even the most far reaching of the Administration’s cynical retreats. Obama tossed how many other junior staffers over board to placate Fox News, etc.?
Someone forced out of a WH office by leaks? Hello, McFly? This is Washington, D.C. Craig is an adult. He’s not a victim. He got dealt a crappy hand of cards. Arguably he played them about average. If one can’t accept leaks determining one’s fate (especially after the Clinton White House) then one has no business walking into a WH job on day one. Those’re the risks. Campaign promises or not.
‘Journalists’ bemoaning this outcome as some rorschach test on Obama are silly. Elizabeth Drew says *this* is ‘the shabbiest episode of his presidency’. Oh really? This?
All the signs were already there blazing in Vegas neon. The ‘We are so disappointed in Barry’s promise of a new D.C.’ cant rings hollow. This guy littered the campaign trail with more jettisoned inconvenient baggage than Bond’s Aston Martin ejector seat. In November 2009 MoDo discovers Obama tends to reward opponents he’s wooing more than loyal supporters? Pulitzer Prizes are indeed a greater sham than the Nobels and Dancing With The Stars combined. Don’t forget how fickle this crowd is itself. When not tut-tutting about the ‘awful’ Craig leaks they are tut-tutting with equal energy that someone needs to force out X by a good leak or three (to them, naturally).
We’re not wholly without sympathy. There may be a human connection. He’s a pal and source. Add the romantic political triangle of law school friends with the Clintons and he was with Hillary before he worked against Hillary thing. Good chinwagging for two Georgetown cocktail parties – and one doesn’t have to pretend to have read the book. Still, all involved would be wiser to save their more effusive stuff for the condolence card. Craig, well connected and well off, lost a job. Not his life. Just consider.
Whatever will these people say to the Americans and their families who come back to us via Walter Reed? Or about those who never do?
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Recall the establishment sympathy for the obviously guilty Scooter? Craig is different, but related.