Reid Quote Correct updated
The headline on BarbinMD’s
latest post is: Politico Continues To Make Up News, now “updated.”
However, according to Bob Geiger who was on the call as well, Reid did say
Pace was “incompetent.”
“I guess the president, uh, he’s gotten rid of Pace because
he could not get him confirmed here in the Senate… Pace is also a yes-man
for the president and I told him to his face, I laid it out to him last time
he came to see me, I told him what an incompetent man I thought he was.”
Everyone is now going to be talking about the “context” of Reid’s
remarks, which is important. He has supposedly told Pace to his face what he
thinks of him. Good for Reid, that’s what any person of character should do.
Senator Reid has many supporters in the military. He’s earned them and I’m sure
those who support him will continue to do so.
However, it doesn’t make this event any less newsworthy. “Context”
doesn’t matter to most people when you hear the quote. Reid said it. It’s confirmed.
Cable news and talk radio will now be using it forever against Reid and the Democrats. In addition,
when you weigh the Congress, which has a 23% approval rating, against what the
American people think of the U.S. military, let’s just say Congress loses. You
don’t get anywhere by calling a chairman of the Joint Chiefs “incompetent.”
If you’re going to level a charge make it specific and cite the situation in
which the soldier failed. Letting bin Laden go at Tora Bora comes to mind. But blanket charges just won’t get the job done.
The other aspect is that this is a gift for the Republicans. They’ve been salivating
to reclaim their “strong on national security” title, which has been
slipping to Democrats through the ’06 election. Iraq continues to erode their stength on national security. This issue has always been the
political brass ring for the GOP, but now they get to question Reid and the
congressional Democrats’ “supporting the troops” reality, because
they’ve been handed a quote. This is about restoring confidence in them
and winning back what they’ve lost. It rallies their base big time.
As much trouble as they’re in they can’t afford to pass that up. Lord knows we wouldn’t.
As for the conference call itself, this turned into an unnecessary mess. What
made it worse is that no one from Reid’s office was confirming it, while Sargent
said Reid sidestepped the question on whether he said it, which was the tell
in this whole tale, as I wrote earlier.
Now, after a day to let the story unwind, conservatives got to frame it. That’s
not anyone’s fault but Majority Leader Harry Reid and his office. If we were
going to get this quote eventually, why not have it ready from the start; or at least confirm that Reid said what he said.
Calling a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff “incompetent”
is anything but unremarkable.
Trust me when I say we’re going to be eating this for a very long time. Next our presidential candidates will be asked if they agree with Senator Reid’s assessment of General Pace. Insert your favorite question about this nightmare here.
There is yet another aspect of this event. How did Politico.com get even the partial
quote? That’s yet another troubling aspect of this sorry situation.
UPDATED: I’ve been out all afternoon and evening, so you’ve all probably seen the latest
from Greg Sargent. It’s an important addition, because someone did indeed tape
the conference call and Greg’s got it, but had agreed not to share the tape,
but only provide the transcript. There is no doubt that Reid said what he said. The
question now is, why in the world did Reid let this hang out there all day without
confirming it? Since he did the honorable thing and told Pace to his face what
he thought of him, why not also confirm to someone, anyone? Also, since Reid believes it why not take the opportunity to also come out and stand by your story strongly at least in a statement? And why sidestep the question at a press conference? Again, the strongest thing to do when you’ve leveled a charge like this is stand up and stand behind it. Reid’s silence all day while the rest of us tried to get to the bottom of this was ridiculous. It makes no sense.
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