Category Archives: 2012 presidential campaign
Hillary News Roundup
Hillary told CNN she’s not running for president of the press. She’s running for president of the American People. Hopefully that means she won’t roundup the rest of us with ropes when she speaks.
She says people should and do trust me despite a June 2 CNN poll in which 57% said Hillary is not “honest and trustworthy”.
Harry Reid Whups the Truth
From the Senate floor in 2012, Harry Reid, without a shred of evidence, claimed Mitt Romney hadn’t paid his taxes for 10 years.
From his bathroom floor on New Years day 2015, Reid claimed some exercise gear beat the crap out him.
CNN’s Dana Bash recently asked Reid about his Senate floor claim. He didn’t apologize or back away. He simply answered, “Romney didn’t win, did he?”
Empty Chair for an Empty Suit
The Obama Under the Bus Body Count rose by one this past week. When the usually reliable Steve Kroft asked the president how ISIS came to power on his watch, Obama blamed National Intelligence boss James Clapper.
Empty Chair
That didn’t sit well with the spooks and they let it be known that Obama is a no show for most intelligence briefings. Obama says, being a 21st Century kind of Commander-In-Chief, he takes his briefings remotely on his I-pad.
Maybe Clint Eastwood was on to something with his empty chair conversation at the 2012 GOP convention.
Ben Rhodes Benghazi Memo
The White House was forced to cough up another Benghazi memo this week because of a FOIA request by Judicial Watch. The memo written by Ben Rhodes urged staffers to emphasize the line that the 9/11/2012 Benghazi attack was caused by an anti-Muslim movie and not a failure of policy. The attack killed a US ambassador and 3 others. At the time the president was bragging that he had decimated al Qaeda. The White House feared news of a planned terror attack would tarnish the president’s campaign theme. Rhodes and others prepped Susan Rice for 5 Sunday talk shows with the message that a demonstration against the video got out of hand, causing the violence in the Benghazi compound.
This Catherine Herridge report shows General Robert Lovell testifying that there were no ant-video demonstrations preceding the Benghazi attack.
Benghazi Memo
Charles Krauthammer says the release of the Rhodes e-mail is up there with the discovery of the Nixon tapes.
Last night Bret Baier asked National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor if he changed Susan Rice’s talking points from terror “attack” to “demonstrations” protesting a video. Spokesman Vietor replied, “Dude, this was like two years ago.”
Issa and Cummings Committee Chaos
The big story on Fox New Sunday was that IRS kingpin Lois Lerner would waive her 5th amendment rights and testify before Daryl Issa’s House Oversight committee. At least that’s what Issa told Chris Wallace on Sunday. On Wednesday Lerner pled the fifth again.
Issa Cummings Committee Chaos
Angered by Lerner’s continued silence, Issa ruled the the hearing adjourned. He then silenced the leading committee Democrat, Ellijah Cummings, by cutting off his mic. The room erupted in chaos with Cummings shouting “I’m a U.S. Congressman” and fellow Dems chanting “shame”. Let’s go rinkside to Dana Milbank:
Issa told Wallace on Sunday that Lerner’s “attorney indicates now that she will testify” after refusing to do so at a hearing last year. The lawyer denied this, and Lerner did not testify Wednesday — and that would have been the news, if not for Issa’s sound-system antics.
Indeed. Issa keeps stepping on his own punchline. The news might have been about why Lerner doesn’t want to talk about these emails:
“Tea Party Matter very dangerous… Counsel and Judy Kindell need to be in on this one… Cincy should probably NOT have these cases,” Lerner said in a February 2011 email.
“Cincinnati wasn’t publicly ‘thrown under the bus’ (but) instead was hit by a convoy of Mack trucks,” wrote Cindy Thomas, former director of the IRS exempt organizations office in Cincinnati, in a May 10, 2013 email to Lerner.
It looks like the IRS intimidated conservative groups and the Tea Party was relatively quiet in the 2012 election. Was there corruption? So far Republicans haven’t come up with a smidgen of proof.
