The fallback defense.

Sharyl Attkisson hinted last night on Twitter that she would have something “interesting” on Benghazi today.  The CBS reporter didn’t disappoint.  Although it’s not exactly a blockbuster revelation, the change in tone in White House trial balloons in its defense of the Benghazi debacle is stunning: Obama administration officials who were in key positions on Sept. [...]

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"I have to go back 40 years to Watergate when Nixon put out his edited transcripts to the conversations, and he personally went through them and said, 'Oh, let's not tell this, let's not show this.'"

We heard from one half of the Watergate-exposing journalistic duo this week on the AP scandal, and now the other half weighs in on the supposedly waning Benghazi debate.  The White House released 100 pages of e-mails that went around the administration on 9/14 — but oddly not on 9/12 or 9/13 — less than [...]

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"I think some in the media were not as curious as I think naturally journalists ought to be.”

Via the Brody File, here’s big-media’s most dogged Benghazi reporter confirming, as tactfully as she can, that she too thinks the press is in the tank. Lest you doubt her conclusion about a certain, shall we say, curious incuriosity among her colleagues, look around at the news today and see how many reporters you find [...]

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How ... meta.

In order to understand just how badly the White House may have fumbled this ball, let’s go back to last week.  Stephen Hayes at the Weekly Standard reported from Congressional sources on a White House-State Department e-mail string that made clear that the administration wanted the talking points on Benghazi massaged to protect sources and [...]

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McClatchy asks: But why did the White House blame a YouTube video at all?

Yesterday, Barack Obama tried to shrug off another of the burgeoning scandals in Washington during a joint press conference with UK PM David Cameron.  Allowing the US press just one question, Obama called on the AP’s Julie Pace, and probably regretted doing so almost immediately.  (It could have been worse; had it been later in [...]

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Circuses.

If Republicans’ insistence on getting to the bottom of the terrorist attack on Benghazi last September is really a “sideshow” borne of “political motivations,” that’s only the case because of Democrats’ clownish antics attempting to downplay and dismiss the issue. Here’s the latest Exhibit A, from the president himself at his presser this morning: The [...]

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"I would call it a cover-up."

It’s a cliché, of course, but it really is true: in Washington, every scandal has a crime and a coverup. The ongoing debate about the attack on the United States facility in Benghazi where four Americans were killed, and the Obama Administration’s response to it, is no exception. For a long time, it seemed like [...]

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"I would just as soon not use them, but it's their call."

One of the mysteries in the Benghazi scandal has been the role of David Petraeus, who was then the Director of the CIA but was forced to resign in a personal scandal shortly thereafter.  While the White House and State Department tried to cobble together talking points to explain away the terrorist attack that took [...]

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Fog.

Before Wednesday’s hearing on the attack in Benghazi, Libya, Republicans in Congress promised explosive new details about the administration’s mishandling of the episode. Instead, the hearing showed, yet again, that sober fact-finding is not their mission. Common sense and good judgment have long given way to conspiracy-mongering and a relentless effort to discredit President Obama [...]

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The most transparent administration ever.

If there’s one thing you want to do when accusations are flying about an attempted cover up and a disinterested, collusive media, it’s holding an off-the-record briefing. Time for the team to huddle. The White House held an off-the-record briefing with reporters on Friday afternoon to discuss recent revelations about the Benghazi investigation, sources familiar [...]

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Answers.

Stephen Hayes follows up on ABC’s scoop this morning by introducing some names. We already knew that State Department mouthpiece Victoria Nuland was unhappy with the passage in the talking points emphasizing that the CIA had warned the administration before about jihadi activity in and around Benghazi. But Nuland, per ABC’s update, wasn’t even in [...]

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Did Jay Carney lie, or was he deceived?

Following on the heels of blockbuster testimony from three whistleblowers regarding the Benghazi terrorist attack, ABC’s Jonathan Karl did some digging into the evolution of the talking points used afterward to paint the attack as a spontaneous demonstration gone wild.  The White House claims that the talking points reflected the CIA’s assessment of the situation, [...]

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"Glaring."

How significant? Well, we don’t know that precisely, because Sen. Tom Coburn can’t tell the Morning Joe crew what got omitted.  Suffice it to say, Coburn explains, that the omission from State on what happened in Benghazi was significant and will cause big problems for the Obama administration … if it ever gets declassified: Sen. Tom [...]

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Fog.

David H. Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers on Friday that classified intelligence reports revealed that the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission in Libya was a terrorist attack, but that the administration refrained from saying it suspected that the perpetrators of the attack were Al Qaeda affiliates and [...]

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Terrific.

Here’s the most cynical thing you’ll see on the Internet today. I’m tempted to call it stupid, but it’s not: The charge is stupid but it’s leveled in service to a clever goal, framing Rice’s prospective nomination as Secretary of State as a referendum on racism and sexism. McCain is the target for daring to [...]

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"No one knows yet exactly who came up with the final version of the talking points."

The (former) director of the CIA doesn’t know why the CIA’s finalized talking points omitted a key detail? Former CIA Director David Petraeus testified in a closed-door hearing Friday morning that his agency determined immediately after the Sept. 11 Libya attack that “Al Qaeda involvement” was suspected — but the line was taken out in [...]

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Mark Steyn strikes a chord.

Contrary to popular perception, I am no more in the bag for Mitt Romney than I am for Newt Gingrich. In fact, I was concerned about Romney long before I learned to be concerned about Gingrich. I’ve also come to appreciate the strengths of both — and will support either should he become the GOP [...]

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